No title

CO NTE NTS NEWS

Volume 205 No 2749

5

EDITORIAL

6

Spot the crime hotspot. NASA's inflatable space station

COVER STORY

Rethinking our relationship with

planet Earth

8

Earth's nine lives

UPFRONT

SPECIAL REPORT

The planet is in

We take a hard look at the IPCes headline findings

better shape than

11 THIS WEEK

you might think

Mud bugs live in Avotorstyle (see right), Dark matter could meet nemesis on Earth, Fighting HIV with HIV. Ice arches and the fate of the Arctic 16 IN BRIEF For a longer life, take to the trees, Mouse with a human li ver, Corals make rain 19 TECHNOLOGY

Cover image Andy Martin

Wireless internet beyond Wi-Fi, What next forthe Airborne Laser? Phones show we're predictable

OPINION

Chasing the big one

24 Cl imate science under siege

A view from the inside by Alan Thorpe, head of the UK's Natural Environment Research Council 25 One minute with... Australian adventure writer Paul Raffaele, on close shaves with great apes 26 LETTERS Homeopathy, Consumer emissions 28 The pheromone delusion There' s no evidence that they exist in mammals, let alone in humans, says Richard L. Doty

Close encounters with a killer tornado

FEATURES

30 Earth's nine lives

(see right) Far from being a happy collaborative affair, producing offspring calls for the deployment of all sorts of nasty tricks 40 Chasing the big one (see right) 44 Spam, spam and more spam It already accounts for9 out oflO emails, and with money to be made it's unlikely to vanish any time soon 36 Battle of the sexes

Com i ng next week

REGULARS 26 ENIGMA

Touching the multiverse

46 BOOKS & ARTS

As SETI approaches its 50th anniversary, three books tackle the mystery of the missing aliens 48 Reviews Writing about music is like dancing about architecture, Poisoning the Victorians 56 FEEDBACK What are scalar wave lasers? 57 THE LAST WORD Flying upside down 50 JOBS & CAREERS

How to make sense ofthe wildest idea of all Life imitates art Avatar's networked biosphere alive

PLUS Inside the atheist mind

and well under Earth's oceans

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27 February 2010 I NewScientist 13

L'Oreal UK and Ireland Fellowships for Women in Science In partnership with the United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO, dIe Irish National Commission for UNESCO and dIe Royal Institution of Great Britain.

Dr Nathalie Seddon UK & Ireland Fellow 2009

Dr Jennifer Bizley UK & Ireland Fellow 2009

Dr Patricia Alireza UK & Ireland Fellow 2009

Dr Elizabeth Murchison UK & Ireland Fellow 2009

Over 10 years ago, L'Oreal and UNESCO

Ireland)

founded the For Women In Science Programme

post doctoral researchers in the UK and

* ,

will be offered to outstanding female

to promote and highlight the importance of

Ireland *

ensuring greater participation of women in

scientists chaired by Baroness Susan Greenfield,

SCIence.

the fellowships can be spent in any number of

Each year, the programme recognises the

innovative ways to enable women scientists to

*.

Adjudicated by a panel of eminent

further their careers and facilitate world class

achievements of exceptional female scientists and awards them with fellowships to help further

research.

their research.

Since 1998, over 700 women in 70 countries have

This year, four awards of £15,000 each

been recognised for their research and received funding to further their studies.

(equivalent value in Euros for candidates in

Apply now For further information and to apply, please visit: www

.womeninscience.co.uk

The deadline for applications is Wednesday 7th April 2010

'To be calculated based on the exchange rate applicable on 1st July 2010. "Please visitdle website for full terms and conditions

WOMEN IN SCIENCE

�;

mm

--UnitedNatJons; Ed�Uonlll.SciemifK;and CultlJral0tgan1z811oro

: �ORE:AL 'Rj1 � :,

UK & IRELAND

The Royal Institution of Great BntalM

•

'

United Kingdom National Commission fo( UNESCO

Inlh Natlooal Camml53Dn for UNESCO

EDITORIAL

Bringing cosmology down to Earth

Honesty is the best policy The backlash against climate science reveals a fatigue with exaggerated messages of doom FOR many environmentalists, all human influence on the planet is bad. Many natural scientists implicitly share this outlook. This is not unscientific, but it can create the impression that greens and environmental scientists are authoritarian tree-huggers who value nature above people. That doesn't play well with mainstream society, as the apparent backlash against climate science reveals. Environmentalists need to find a new story to tell. Like it or not, we now live in the anthropocene - an age in which humans are perturbing many of the planet's natural systems, from the water cycle to the acidity of the oceans. We cannot wish that away; we must recognise it and manage our impacts. That is central to our cover story. johan Rockstrom, head ofthe Stockholm Environment Institute in Sweden, and colleagues have distilled recent research on how Earth systems work into a list of nine "planetary boundaries" that we must stay within to live sustainably (see page 30). It is preliminary work, and many will disagree with where the boundaries are set. But the point is to offer a new way of thinking about our relationship with the environment ­ a science-based picture that accepts a certain level of human impact and even allows us some room to expand. The result is a breath offresh

air: though we are already well past three of the boundaries, we haven't trashed the place yet. It is in the same spirit that we also probe the basis for key claims in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report on climate impacts (see page 8). This report has BIG cosmological mysteries usually require big cosmological projects to solve them, but been much discussed since our revelations about its unsubstantiated statement on melting the debate over dark matter has just been brought firmly down to Earth. Himalayan glaciers. Why return to the topic? Dark matter is the leading explanation Because there is a sense that the IPCC shares for anomalies in the movement of stars and the same anti-human agenda and, as a result, is too credulous of unverified numbers. While galaxies. It has a rival, modified Newtonian the majority ofthe report is assuredly rigorous, dynamics (MONO), which proposes that Newton's second law of motion is not quite there is no escaping the fact that parts of it right. While there has always been the "If we're to manage the anthropocene prospect of detecting dark matter on Earth, successfully, we need cooler heads MONO has lacked a similar practical test. Now theorists have come up with a way (see and clearer statistics" page 14), and there appears to be no reason why make claims that go beyond the science. the experiment can't be done. Given that it could deliver one of the biggest steps forward For example, the chapter on Africa exaggerates a claim about crashes in farm since dark matter was proposed in 1934, there's only one thing to say: get on with it! • yields, and also highlights projections of increased water stress in some regions while ignoring projections in the same study that point to reduced water stress in other regions. These errors are not trifling. They are among MONTY PYTHON might have made spam the report's headline conclusions. funny in 1970, but by the time the word Some will see our investigation as an unwelcome distraction in a propaganda battle acquired its new meaning it was no laughing matter. Spam is less ofa nuisance today, thanks to get action on climate change. But if we are to better filters. In some ways it is even funny to manage the anthropocene successfully, again. The statistics reveal some Pythonesque we need cooler heads and clearer statistics. absurdities - spam selling anti-spam software, Above all, we need a dispassionate view of for instance. Don't be tempted to buy it, the state of the planet and our likely future impact on it. There's no room for complacency: though, even if spam drives you mad: it takes Rockstrom's analysis shows us that we face just a handful of purchases forthe spammers real dangers, but exaggerating our problems to turn a profit (see page 44). The best defence is to laugh in its face.• is not the way to solve them .•

The joke's on spam

What's hot on NewScientist.com ZOOLOCiCiERThe fireproofing skills of the great bowerbird

The intricate twig structures that bowerbirds build for courtship are surprisingly resi lientto bush fires, Find out why

g

BIOLOCiYWeight-lifting ants

See the prizewinners in a contest to showcase biological research, i ncluding a crow "fishing" for larvae i nside a tree and an ant lifting 100 times its body weight while clinging to a ceiling and crafty crows

D

PROSTHETICS Artificial foot puts a spring in your step

See how a prosthetic that recycles the energy expended when its foot strikes the ground could allow amputees to walk with less effort PHYSICSWhat happens at absolute zero? Chill things closeto the lowest possi ble temperature and weird things start to happen, We take a look at the coldest places i n the universe, from shadowed moon craters to the Boomerang nebula

g

VISUALISED SCIENCE Follow the money vs flower

From a map tracking dollar bills' journeys across the US to microscopic pillars that look like colourful flowers, check out the wi nning entries in the International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge power

D

g

EARLY HUMANSMessages

from the Stone Age Our ancestors had a regular system of 26 symbols, which may have led to written language, See the curious similarities between cave paintings from around the globe, which suggest that the symbols have a common origin in Africa

TECHNOLOCiY Flying pixels

Using small light- toting toy helicopters as pixels, engi neers are making three-dimensional d isplays that envelop the viewer

If you would like to comment onl ine about any of the articles in this issue, you can do so by visiting the article at newscientist.com

27 February 2010 I NewScientist 1 5

UPFRONT

A formula for crime LOS ANGELES police are getting

crime wave. The second, "subcritical",

tip-offs from unlikely informants:

happens when a particular factor - the

mathematicians. Using crime data from southern

presence of a drug den, for instance­ causes a large spike in crime. The

California, jeffrey Brantingham of

equations also indicated that rigorous

the University of California, Los

policing could completely eliminate

Angeles, and his colleagues set

the subcritical hotspots, but would

out to calculate how the movements

simply displace the supercritical

of criminals and victims create

variety (Proceedings of the National

opportunities for crime, and how

Academy of Sciences, 001: 10.10731

police can reduce it. They came up

pnas.0910921107).

with a pair of equations that could

The approach "presents a novel

explain how local crime hotspots

hypothesis of how hotspots form",

form - which turned out to be similar

says john Eck, a criminologist at

to those that describe molecular

the University of Cincinnati, Ohio.

reactions and diffusion.

Brantingham hopes eventually to

The equations suggested that

be able to predict where subcritical

there are two kinds of hotspot. The

hotspots are forming, so police can

first called "supercritical", arises

step in to nip problems in the bud.

when small spikes in crime pass a

His team is already collaborating

certain threshold and create a local

with Los Angeles police.

No to homeopathy POLITICIANS and scientists may not always see eye to eye, but in homeopathy they have found something to agree on. In the UK, a parliamentary committee has concluded that homeopathic remedies work no better than placebos and should not be paid for by the taxpayer. The UK National Health Service funds homeopathic hospitals, some homeopathic prescriptions and allows doctors to refer patients to homeopaths. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency licenses homeopathic remedies, even though they are made from solutions diluted so much that it is extremely unlikely that any active component is left. "There is no reliable record of how much the National Health Service spends on homeopathy"

Now the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, which examined the scientific evidence behind these policies, says that it found no 6 1 NewScientist 127 February 2010

evidence that homeopathic remedies work beyond a placebo effect. It concludes that current policy gives the incorrect im pression that the evidence for such remedies is as strong as for conventional medicines and is inconsistent with a policy of informed patient choice. The report says that there is no reliable record of how much the NHS spends on homeopathy. Mike O'Brien, the minister responsible for the N HS, told the committee that the service spends £150,000 a year on remedies; the UK Society of Homeopaths puts the figure at £4 million. The UK-based Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health, which backs complementary medicine, acknowledges that homeopathy is "scientifically implausible", but says: "For patients suffering from long term disease, where no scientific, evidence based medicine can offer effective trea tment, it does not matter how it works." The UK government is not obliged to implement the committee's recommendations, but must respond to its report.

Coal climate USUALLY when US states strike out at the federal government's track record on environment issues it is to highlight its lack of action. Not so for Utah. In a resolution passed earlier this month, the state's House of Representatives called on the US government to suspend efforts to cut industrial emissions until an investigation into climate science has been completed. The original text ofthe resolution mentioned "the climate data

conspiracy", a reference to the fallout from the leaked emails from the UK's Climatic Research Unit. The resolution states that the messages reveal a "well organized" effort to " manipulate" global temperature data. It may be worries about the local economy, rather than a concern for data integrity, that prompted the Utah resolution. The state generates over 95 per cent of its electricity from coal­ fired power stations, and would face higher energy costs if carbon emissions were regulated.

Drug laws hurt cancer patients OVERZEALOUS regulation of opioids

Israel, to review access to opioids in

is having a painful knock-on effect on

their countries. They found that tens

eastern Europeans with cancer.

of thousands of cancer patients in

Opioid-type drugs are potent

several former Soviet bloc countries

painkillers. The World Health

can't easily get them because of laws

Organization lists two of them,

aimed at preventing black markets in

codeine and morphine, as "essential

these drugs (Annals Of Oncology,

medicines" that ought to be available

001: 1O.1093/annonc/mdpSB1).

worldwide. Nathan Cherny of Shaare

In Ukraine, for example, patients

Zedek Medical Center in jerusalem,

are only allowed a day's supply of

Israel, and colleagues asked cancer

medicine at a time, while in Georgia

pain specialists, including doctors,

they must get a stamp from a police

from 40 European countries plus

station to obtain opioids.

For daily news stories, visit www. NewScientist.com/news

60 SECONDS

Less-lethal peanuts

Planet hunter

A treatment that reduced the

A MISSION to find nearby alien planets to search for signs oflife is a step closer to lift-off. While NASA's Kepler space telescope is already looking for

effects of peanut allergy in a small group of children will now be tested on more than 100 people. Andrew Clark of Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK, gave 23 children escalating daily doses of peanut

"The PLATO space telescope would look for star systems close enough to scan for b io-signatures"

Earth-sized planets (New Scientist, 7 February 200g, p 8), most of the worlds it finds will be too distant for their spectra to be scanned for oxygen or other hints of life. The proposed space telescope, called Planetary Transits and Space in a balloon Oscillations of Stars (PLATO), would use the same method as ASTRONAUTS may one day orbit the Earth in roomy balloons Kepler and watch for the brief instead of cramped tin cans, now dimming as a planet passes in front of its star. But PLATO would that NASA has made inflatable space habitats a priority. focus on systems close enough to scan for bio-signatures. "PLATO The White House announced a change in direction for NASA potentially will get us targets," on 1 February. Instead of the says Jonathan Lunine ofthe planned crewed missions to University of Arizona in Tucson. the moon, the agency intends The European Space Agency to pour money into research announced last week that PLATO is now one of three finalists vying and development (New Scientist, 13 February 2010, p 8). for two launch slots from the agency. Its com petitors are Euclid, "Balloon-like habitats can a space telescope that would measure dark energy and dark be larger, lighter and less matter, and Solar Orbiter, which expensive than traditional ones made of metal" would observe the sun from an orbit approaching closer than The outline listed technologies Mercury's. The winners could on NASA's wish list but provided fly as early as 2017. few details. Now NASA has fleshed out its plans in a detailed budget proposal posted on its website on 22 February. One section notes that balloon-like habitats " can be larger, lighter, and potentially less expensive" than traditional ones made of rigid metal walls. They could be used as space stations, or eventually as moon bases. NASA may send inflatable structures to the International Space Station to test their mettle - including their ability to shield against space radiation. The document also reveals that the agency plans to restart the

flour mixed with yogurt. After six months, 21could tolerate the equivalent of five peanuts a week.

Mosquitoes grounded How do you stop dengue fever? Ground the female Aedes aegypti mosqUitoes, which spread the disease, says UKcompany Oxitec. The firm has genetically engineered

NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. Until it was closed by budget cutbacks in 2007, the institute funded research into potentially revolutionary technologies, including space elevators and antimatter harvesting. "Its cancellation was very short-sighted," says John Cramer of the University of Washington in Seattle.

male mosquitoes to have a defective wing-growth gene that is only expressed in females. If modified males are released in dengue hotspots, the gene could be passed to female offspring.

Cluster muster Many dense star clusters dotted around our galaxy appear to be interlopers. The stars in about a quarter of all globular clusters

Stem cell redux THE menu of cells that federally funded researchers in the US can work with is set to expand. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is proposing to add cell lines created from early-stage embryos to the list of eligible human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). A year ago, President Barack Obama relaxed previous limits on ESCs, prized for their potential to morph into any cell type. But those revisions covered only cell lines created from several-day-old blastocysts, not those from younger embryos, which, unlike older ESCs, can be obtained without destroying the embryo. "My hat's off to them for correcting things," say s Robert Lanza. His firm, Advanced Cell Technology, hopes to use one such line in a trial of a treatment for macular degeneration. The NIH will accept public comments on the proposal for the next 30 days.

betray a distinct chemical make-up, implying that these clusters formed within dwarf galaxies that later merged with the MilkyWay (arxiv. org/absIl001.4289).

Climate step down The man who many say has single­ handedly held together global climate negotiations for three years will step down in july. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, will join consultancy group KPMG as adviser on climate and sustainability.

Lapdogs are ancient Love them or loathe them, small dogs have gone the distance. An analysis of DNA from dogs and wolves has revealed that the gene that turned the ancestral wolf into a Yorkshire terrier originated more than 12,000 years ago in the Middle East (BMCBio/ogy, in press).

27 February 2010 1 NewScientist 1 7

SPECIAL REPORT I CLIMATE IMPACTS

EVER since the I ntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report on the impacts of climate change was discovered to contain a major error­ that the Himalayan glaciers will be largely gone by 2035 there has been a media feeding frenzy to find other mistakes. But it misses the point to focus on individual errors sprinkled through the report's 1000 or so pages (see "Digging devils from the details", page 10) . How solid are its headline findings? The IPCC presented the second section of its 2007 report in April that year at a news conference in Brussels, Belgium. Its message was clear: climate change is happening now, and its impacts will be increasingly felt as more and more carbon dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere. The panel then forecast key impacts. In this special investigation, New Scientist takes a closer look at these headline forecasts. Our aim is not to uncover a new scandal buried deep in the report. Rather, we explore how conclusions that the IPCC itself regards -

8 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

as key findings reached the top ofthe "The IPCC has heap, and whether the science behind shown rig our them stands up to scrutiny. and attention We focus on three key topics: the to detail in impact of climate change on water many areas, supplies, food, and biodiversity. The but laxness investigation reveals that the IPCC's elsewhere" broad conclusions were sound. Indeed, the stringent rules of the IPCC means the report sometimes understated the potential impacts of climate change ­ on biodiversity, for instance. But our findings suggest there may have been problems with the way its conclusions were presented. It was too easy for some numbers mentioned in passing in academic papers to find their way into public presentations of IPCC reports without sufficiently rigorous assessment. Sections reviewing how different regions around the world would feel the impacts, in particular, may not have been subjected to the same close review as others. One ofthe most dramatic forecasts ofthe report was that " 20 to 30 per cent of plant and animal species assessed so

far are likely to be at increased risk of extinction if increases in global average temperature exceed 1.5 - 2.5 ·C" above current levels. This appears in several IPCC summaries and was headlined at the report's launch in Brussels. The key source is a Nature paper by 19 authors headed by Chris Thomas, then at the University of Leeds, UK, published in 2004. The pioneering study modelled changes to the " climate envelope" in which species live. It found that such warming would leave 15 to 37 per cent of species "committed to extinction", doomed as their habitats disappeared (Natu re, vol 427, p 145) . Early drafts of the [PCC's 2007 report include this study in a table of 57 related papers. Problematically, Thomas's study was the only one to claim global coverage - others focused on specific regions or taxa. One of the [PCC's lead authors, Guy Midgley of the South African National Biodiversity Institute in Cape Town, says they wanted a major statement on biodiversity threats but knew the

For daily news stories, visit www. NewScientist.com/news

Thomas paper alone was not sufficient evidence. Nonetheless, " to be mute on this would have been a significant disservice to policy-makers". So Midgley and his colleagues took the decision to reanalyse the other regional and taxa predictions to harmonise their methodology with Thomas's. This was complex, but the results broadly matched those of the Thomas paper. So the IPCC authors presented the "20 to 30 per cent" extinction to the final plenary meeting where the report was to be signed off. The resulting interrogation "was the most intimidating thing I have ever faced", says Midgley. In the final text, Thomas's phrase "committed to extinction" was watered down to "at increased risk ofextinction". Midgley says it "is not out of line with the Thomas et al estimate, but is far better supported". Did it represent the state of science? The Thomas pa per was controversial. Six months after publishing the paper, Nature ran three critical reviews of its

Has the climate threat to Earth's biodiversity been underplayed?

methods. None of these are referenced in the IPCC report. Midgley says the IPCC's strict word-counts prevented a full discussion of the issues -an unfortunate situation for a major finding in a report charged with assessing science. But when New Scientist contacted the authors of those critiques, none demurred from the IPCC finding. One, John Harte at the University of California, Berkeley, said most of his criticisms suggested that Thomas underestimated extinction rates. Far from the IPCC being guilty of exaggeration, he says, its caution may have led it to underplay the extinction holocaust awaiting the planet's biodiversity in the coming century. Such caution is less evident in the process that led to the IPCC's statement on the impacts of drought in Africa. This was another headline statement at the report's Brussels presentation. It said that by the 2020S, "between 75 and 250 million people [in Africa1 are projected to be exposed to an increase in water stress due to climate change".

The report attributes the source of this conclusion to a 2004 paper by Nigel Arnell, director of the Walker Institute for Climate System Research at the University of Reading, UK. Arnell's study, in Global Environmental Change (vol 14, p 31), used six models and 14 scenarios, each describing a possible future with varying changes to the climate and human population, to predict how many people will have access to less water in 21 regions of the world. The study found that an additional 74 to 239 million Africans would suffer from increased "water stress", depending on the different climate and population scenarios, with an average of about 152 million. The IPCC rounded this range to "75 to 250 million". But its interpretation of Arnell's paper is questionable. The IPCC report ignores another table showing the number of people in different regions who will have access to more water under climate change. The total across African regions ranges between 11 and 175 million, with an average >

27 February 2010 1 NewScientist 1 9

SPECIAL REPORT I CLIMATE IMPACTS

Agoumi's 11-page report, entitled "Vulnerability of North African Countries to Climatic Changes", was funded by the US Agency for International Development. It covers only three countries: Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. It simply asserts, without identifying specific evidence or a peer­ reviewed source, that "studies on the future of vital agriculture in the region" have identified a number of risks which are linked to climate change, including "deficient yields from rain-based agriculture of up to 50 per cent during the 2000-2020 period". This is thin evidence, and the IPCC treated it carelessly. Agoumi said the projected losses were "linked" to climate change, rather than necessarily caused by it. The IPCC ignored this subtlety. Sometimes the IPCC said the decline in yield might happen due to captured public attention and has Water shortages natural variability in the climate as loom big in Africa's appeared in speeches by IPCC chairman well as man-made climate change, and Rajendra Pachauri. But does the dire sometimes it didn't. IPCC sources this futu re. Just how big remains a mystery conclusion reflect the science? week admitted to New Scientist that One newspaper recently revealed this was an error. this claim's source to be a commissioned Crucially, the IPCC ignored that report that had not been peer-reviewed. Agoumi's prediction applies only to rain­ That in itself is not sufficient grounds fed agriculture. In arid North Africa to dismiss it. Many commissioned much farming is irrigated rather than reports have sound findings and this rain-fed. So the IPCe's prediction that one was written by a known expert, some African nations could lose half of Moroccan Ali Agoumi. IPCC authors their crops is in fact based on a fraction insist that citing it was legitimate. The of agriculture in three North African real issue is whether Agoumi's findings nations. The fact is we still know far too justify the IPCe's conclusion that some little about how African food production countries in Africa could lose half their will be affected by climate change. None of this alters the basic science. food production by 2020. Our enquiries suggest not. The findings ofthe parallel IPCC report on the physical science of climate change remain largely unchallenged. DIGGING DEVILS FROM THE DETAILS But some scientists involved say the In recent weeks, many media reviewed report by environment which acknowledged the error demand from governments for detailed group WWF, which had itself cited earlier this month. The mistake had reports have sought to pick holes in predictions about the effects of climate the details of the impact section of work by leading Amazon researcher no bearing on other statements. change within their own borders has Daniel Nepstad that did not support the IPCe's 2007 report. Co-chair of Natural disasters: The IPCC led researchers to make predictions the section, Martin Parry of Imperial the statement. Subsequent work linked worsening natural disasters that do not stand up to scrutiny. by Nepstad, however, does back to climate change. In particular, College London, last week sent a The IPCC is now laying the ground letter to fellow authors saying it this claim. "The IPCC statement on it published a graph apparently for its next report, to be published in the Amazon was correct;' he says. was "a clamour without substance". showing this link since 1970, 2014. The chair of the section on the Here's our potted guide. and attributed the graph to an Sea levels in the Netherlands: An impacts of climate change, Chris Field "Amazongate": The chapter observation that 55 per cent of the upcoming paper that did not of the Carnegie Institution in Stanford, on Latin America said that "up to Netherlands "is below sea level" ultimately include it. British California, has inherited a tainted 40 per cent of the Amazon forests risk-consultant Robert Muir-Wood, was wrong. The correct figure is chalice. He told New Scientist there (Quid react drastically to even a 26 per cent (55 per cent is at risk who produced the graph, told New were flaws in the 2007 report, but that slight reduction in precipitation". of flooding). The faulty data was Scientist "It could be misinterpreted he is "committed to sufficient checking provided by the Dutch government, and should not have been included." This was taken from a non-peerand cross-checking to ensure a truly error-free product next time".•

of 111 million. In Arnell's paper, the two tables were given equal prominence. Arnell's study also warned at length about not taking the quantified projections too literally. The figures do not appear in his conclusion. Instead, it says the numbers can be used to compare the relative effects of different climate and population scenarios. The IPCC report and the publicity at its launch did not reflect Arnell's caution. Africa undoubtedly faces testing times over water, but the apparent desire to find a quotable number for drought threats in Africa arguably led the IPCC to an unbalanced conclusion. Water shortages matter most in poor countries because of their influence on food production. The IPCC's chapter on food concludes that while crop yields in higher latitudes will probably increase under modest warming, "at lower latitudes, crop productivity is projected to decrease for even small local temperature increases (1°C to 2°C)". It says rice yields will be "unchanged", but wheat and maize will decline. These conclusions are based on 69 studies, covering a range of climate scenarios. The report also makes clear that iffarmers adapt their methods to a changing climate, they may avoid many of the damaging effects. This global assessment is thorough. But again, the section of the report that discusses crop forecasts for Africa is problematic. Its summary highlights the finding that " projected reductions in yield in some countries could be as much as 50 per cent by 2020". This

10 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

For daily news stories, visitwww. NewScientist.com/news

'Pandora' bacteria act as one organism magiC," says Nielsen. "It goes Catherine Brahic against everything we have IN THE movie Avatar, the learned so far. Micro-organisms can live in electric symbiosis Na' avi people of Pandora plug themselves into a network that across great distances. Our links all elements of the biosphere, understanding of what their life is like, what they can and can't from phosphorescent plants to pterodactyl-like birds. It turns out do - these are all things we have to think of in a different way now." that Pandora's interconnected Many marine bacteria ecosystem may have a parallel generate energy by oxidising the back on Earth: sulphur-eating bacteria that live in muddy gas hydrogen sulphide, which is common in ocean sediments. sediments beneath the sea floor. To do this, the bugs need access Some researchers believe that to the oxygen in seawater to carry bacteria in ocean sediments are connected by a network of away the electrons produced as microbial nanowires. These fine the sulphide is broken down. Nielsen and his team took samples of bacteria-laced "The discovery has been sediment from the sea floor close almost magic. It goes to Aarhus. In the lab, they first against everything we have learned so far" removed and then replaced the oxygen in the seawater above protein filaments could shuttle the samples. To their surprise, electrons back and forth, allowing measurements of hydrogen sui phide revealed that bacteria communities of bacteria to act as several centimetres from the one super-organism. Now Lars Peter Nielsen of Aarhus University surface started breaking down the in Denmark and his team have gas long before the reintroduced oxygen had diffused down to found tantalising evidence to su pport this controversial theory. them (Nature, DOl: 10.1038/ "The discovery has been almost nature08790).

Electric partnership A nanowire network may allow bacteria i n oxygen-poor ocean sediments to access the oxygen they need to break down t h e i r food

DEEP BACTERIA To break down hyd rogen sulphide (H,S) and generate energy. bacteria in oxygen- poor reg ions pass electrons ont o a network of

protein nanowires ...

_--->H,O SURFACE BACTERIA ...which convey the electrons to bacteria nearer the surface. These in turn dump the electrons onto oxygen di sso lved in the water, which then reacts with hydrogen ions to form water. compl eti n g the reaction

Nielsen believes a network of conductive protein wires between the bacteria makes this possible, allowing the oxidation reaction to happen remotely from the oxygen that sustains it. The wires transport electrons from bacteria in deeper, oxygen-poor sediments to bacteria in oxygen-rich mud near the surface. There, they are offloaded onto the oxygen, completing the reaction (see diagram). Nielsen calls the process "electrical symbiosis".

Other evidence backs up this idea. For years, geochemists have known that microbes generate a weak current in the seabed - a process several groups are using to build microbial fuel cells. "But people have been focused on making power. They've left behind the question of what's going on in nature and why bacteria might have this ability to exchange electrons," says Nielsen. "These are very encouraging and exciting results," says biogeochemist Yuri Gorby of the J. Craig Venter Institute in San Diego, California. He adds that while Nielsen's results are "highly suggestive" of electrical symbiosis, "we must be careful not to extend conclusions beyond what are scientifically proven". Nanowires have been spotted in the lab by Gorby and other teams, but not in natural sediment. Nielsen, who plans to search for the wires in natural settings, says it is needle-in-a-haystack work. As for theAvatar similarities, Nielsen says "we have no indication that more advanced information is exchanged in the network", but admits the parallels are striking.• 27 February 2010 I NewScientist 1 11

1I'11 'E R 'E'S NOT ENOUGH

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THIS WEEK

Dark matter could meet its nemesis on Earth A SPINNING disc may be all that is needed to overturn Newton's second law of motion - and potentially remove the need for dark matter. The second law states that a force is proportional to an object's mass and its acceleration. But since the 1980s, some physicists have eyed the law with suspicion, arguing that subtle changes to it at extremely small accelerations could explain the observed motion of stars in galaxies. Stars move at speeds that suggest that galaxies have far more mass than is visible, which astronomers attribute to dark matter. But if Newton's second law could be modified ever so

was first proposed in 2007, when Alex Ignatiev calculated that the accelerations all cancel out for a millisecond at two particular points on Earth's surface, twice a year. That makes the experiment possible in theory, but not feasible. Now, De Lorenci's team has figured out that a spinning disc can reproduce the effect any time

If the second law is correct at all accelerations, a measuring device mounted on the rim should register no anomalous force at these points. However, if MONO is correct, the device should feel an aberrant kick. "We are able to control the conditions to produce the MONO regime in any place at any time," says Oe Lorenci. However, the experiment can only test a version of MONO that says that all forces act differently at tiny accelerations. Another version postulates that just gravity would be affected, and this can only be tested in space. Still, the new work is a boon to those interested in MONO. "This is a brilliant twist on an experiment that could conceivably be performed on the Earth's surface," says astronomer Stacy McGaugh at the University of Maryland in College Park. Stuart Clark _

allow i t to make a single copy of itself and sneak into the DNA of human cells, But because these "si ngle cycle" viruses can't make any further copies, this should address thefear that a weakened HIV-based vacci ne might still recover the abil ity to cause infection following multiple cycles of replication and mutation, On 18 February at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and

Opportunistic Infections in San Francisco, Virxsys revealed that it gave a version of the vaccine­ designed to work against SIV, the simian version of the virus - to five monkeys, followed six months later by infection with a severe strain of SIV Within weeks, viral levels fell by 95 per cent in three of the monkeys, while precious CD4+ immune cells ­ targeted by SIV in monkeys and by H IV in humans - remained intact. The company says this paves the way for a human trial, initially in people who already have the virus to avoid any chance of a vaccine infecting people who didn't have H IV to start with, Virxsys is not alone in exploring the use of genetically altered SIV to reduce levels of infection, David Evans of Harvard Medical School in Boston, who attended the firm's presentation, created an SIV-based vaccine that reduced viral load in monkeys to a greater extent. This might be because his vaccine virus, while also si ngle cycle, contained eight of SIV's n i ne genes, whereas the Virxsys vaccine contained three, Andy Coghlan _

slightly, it would obviate the need for dark matter. The hypothesis, known as modified Newtonian dynamics (MONO), was proposed in 1981 by Mordehai Milgrom, then at Princeton University. Ground-based tests of MONO had been thought impossible "This is a brilliant twist on because of the confounding an experiment that could motions of the Earth. But now, conceivably be performed Vitorio De Lorenci of the Federal on the Earth's surface" University ofItajuba, Brazil, and colleagues have devised and anywhere on Earth. Their an experiment to do just that calculations show that if the disc is positioned accurately and its (arxiv.org/abs/1002.2766). The key is to cancel out the speed precisely controlled, the acceleration of Earth's rotation, acceleration at specific points its orbit round the sun, and on the disc's rim would cancel out the orbit of the sun round the the accelerations produced by the galactic centre. The basic idea motion of the Earth and the sun.

INSIGHT Fight HIV with H IV: is the time right to resurrect this vaccine approach? SOME of the world's best vaccines are killed orweakened versions of the very bugs they are designed to protect against, so it's troublesome that HIV is considered too deadly and infectious to risk trying this approach, Thatview may now be changing, A company called Virxsys, based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is resurrecti ng the long-abandoned idea of using a weakened version of H IV as a vacci ne, It's too soon to say whether the firm has hit on a winning formula or not but the idea is timely: there is mounting frustration at a lack of success with vaccines against HIV based on weakervi ruses, In 2007, a high-profile trial was stopped when it emerged that recipients of the vaccine, based on a cold vi rus, appeared more vulnerable to H IV infection than those in the control Removing genes from H IV could make it safe enough for a vaccine

14 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

group, In 2009, a vacci ne based on the canarypox virus was found to offer only very modest protection, Virxsys's suggestion is to use HIV itself as the basis for a vaccine, after removing key genes the virus needs to replicate, Still left would be those that

For daily news stories, visitwww. NewScientist.com/news

Fallen arches let Arctic ice escape the ice from floating away. Then in 2007, the warmest year on record in the Arctic, no arches EVERY winter the Arctic ice cap is penned in by curved barriers of ice formed and vast quantities of sea spanning the straits that lead out ice were lost. "Around 1 per cent of of the Arctic Ocean. Now it seems Arctic ice by area went down the that some ofthese ice arches are Nares Strait that year; more than double the usual amount," says failing to form. The resulting exodus of sea ice into the Atlantic Kwok. The next year wasn't much and Pacific could affect ocean better - only one weak arch formed circulation and marine life. and broke down after two months A team led by Ronald Kwok of (Geophysical Research Letters, DOl: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1O.102g/200gGL041872). Last year Pasadena, California, has studied provided a brief respite, but so far satellite images of the Nares in 2010 there is no sign of any Strait - the narrow passage arches in the strait. between Greenland and Ellesmere Kwok and his colleagues Island. For each of the last 13 years suspect that higher temperatures they noted when ice arches are thinning Arctic ice, c reating formed and how much sea ice smaller and weaker blocks that are escaped down the strait. less effective at building arches. During most years, large Peter Wadhams from the blocks of sea ice clump together University of Cambridge agrees in mid-January to build one or two that the arches have become less arches across the strait. The arches stable, but isn't convinced that usually persist for around six this will have much effect on months, acting as dams to prevent overall ice flow. "The Nares Strait

Kate Ravilious

Disease blocker enters cells with no outside help

nanotubes. Now Anastasia Khvorova

is a lesser outflow - the main one is the Fram Strait," he says. Fram is too wide to form arches. Ice arches do plug many other openings in the Arctic, however, including the Bering Strait and parts of the Canadian archipelago. Kwok and his colleagues speculate

that if these arches fail like those of the Nares Strait, then the heavy ice traffic leaving the Arctic could lower the salinity of the water enough to affect ocean circulation, Ecosystems that are adapted to ice-free conditions could also be disrupted, •

Crossing the cell mem b rane

celi types, including immune, eye and

and colleagues at RXi Pharmaceuticals

liver celis, and switch off genes there,

in Worcester, Massachusetts, have

RXi says, However, to tackle cancer or inflammatory disease, RXi's RNA

come up with a simpler approach.

would have to be injected into the

RNA molecules cannot easily pass unaided into cells because they are

bloodstream. From there it might find

SNIPPETS of RNA that switch off

charged or "polar"; this means they

its way not just into cancer celis, for

disease· causing genes can now slip

dissolve easily in water but not fats.

example, but also into healthy cells,

into cells unaided. This could help

To cross the cell membrane,

and block genes there, warns John

efforts to use RNA interference

molecules need to be soluble in both.

Rossi at the City of Hope cancer

(RNAi) to treat diseases such as cancer and diabetes. For a gene to be expressed as a

So Khvorova's team chemically their negative charge, and make them

protein, it must first be copied into

smaller (see diagram). This seemed

messenger RNA (mRNA). RNAi blocks

to do the trick. 'These compounds

this process by sending in RNA

get inside the cell within seconds,"

snippets that bind to specific mRNAs.

says Khvorova, who presented her

To do this, the gene·blocking RNA must first get into the cell. A variety of elaborate strategies have been suggested as ways to get it there,

centre in Duarte, California, who researches an alternative approach

modified RNA molecules to reduce

Small, weakly charged RNA can penetrate both charged and uncharged regions, and enter cell

to RNAi. Even for diseases where the RNA could be injected directly into target tissue, it might still reach cells other than the intended ones. Rossi adds, however, that

work at an RNAi Silencing Conference

disease. It hopes to find many more,

RXi's self·delivering RNA might be

in Keystone, Colorado, last month.

but the unusually short strands of

useful in cell·culture or animal

RXi says that in studies of human and animal cells its molecules have

such as attaching the blocking RNA

been shown to block at least 17 genes,

to fragments of bacteria or carbon

some of which are implicated in

RNA it uses may not be able to block

experiments as a means of rapidly

the RNA of all genes.

screening RNA sequences to find

Studies in mice show that the molecules can enter many different

candidates that (Quid be delivered by other means,

Lind a Geddes .

27 February 2010 I NewScientist 1 15

IN BRI EF

Star fattens planet as future snack

Scott Williams at the University of Illinois at Urbana­

M y fountain of youth? Why, it's u p in the trees

representing all the major groups of mammals. They

LIVING in the trees may be the secret to longevity - in the

were almost twice those of terrestrial species of similar

evolutionary long run, at least. Tree-dwelling mammals

sizes (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

live nearly twice as long as their ground-bound cousins.

001: 1O.1073/pnas.0911439107).

Champaign gathered data on the lifespans of 776 species

A JUPITER-LIKE exoplanet is being fattened up by its star ready to be eaten. Discovered in 2008, WASP-12b is a gas giant that is 1.4 times as massive as Jupiter, but is puffed up to about 1.8 times Jupiter's size. It orbits the host star in 26 hours. Shu-lin Li ofthe Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Beijing, China, and colleagues say that this bloat is caused by the star's gravity, which stirs up the planet's interior, generating heat that expands its gases (Natu re, 001: 1O.1038/nature08715). WASP-12b's bloated state means it can barely hold onto its outer atmosphere. This should allow the star to steal matter from the planet, devouring it completely in about 10 million years, the team estimates. "This may sound like a long time, but for astronomers it's nothing," says Li. Earth has been around for more than 4.5 billion years.

discovered that the maximum lifespans of tree-dwellers

Evolutionary biologists have long predicted that

It is well established that larger mammals tend to

natural selection should favour extending the lifespan

live longer than smaller ones. The kinkajou (pictured),

Mouse grows human liver

MICE with a "human" liver could be used to study malaria, hepatitis from predators, do have particularly long lives. even though it isjust l/40th the size. and cirrhosis. Like fliers, tree-d welling mammals can easily escape The team is now setting its sights on burrowing Inder Verma of the Salk mammals, to see if life underground also reduces risk many predators. To see if this might also help them live Institute in La Jolla, California, and so ultimately extends the lifespans of those species. longer, biological anthropologists Milena Shattuck and and colleagues created mice that lacked a range of immune cells and a toxin-clearing enzyme, which meant that their liver cells Giant quake coming? Feel for Earth tid es earthquake, more tremors occurred when the pull ofthe daily died unless they were given a drug. MASSNE earthquakes, such as causing them to slip past each Earth tides was at its strongest than Then the team injected the the one that triggered the Indian other, inducing tremors. at other times. Tanaka saw the mice with human liver cells and same signal in the run-up to two Ocean tsunami on 26 December Sachiko Tanaka ofthe National withdrew the drug. These cells nearby massive quakes in 2005 and homed in on the mouse livers, 2004, could be predicted years in Research Institute for Earth advance by monitoring tremors Science and Disaster Prevention 2007 (Geophysical Research Letters, where they replaced dying mouse caused by "Earth tides". in Tsukuba, Japan, studied 001: 1O.1029/2009GL041S81). cells (The Journal ofClinical This tidal signal may help The gravitational pull of the 1126 quakes that happened along Investigation, 001: 10.1172/ to identify areas that are likely JCI40094 ) . The livers appeared sun and moon deforms the Earth's the Sumatran fault, where the crust and upper mantle, creating to experience a huge earthquake to act like human ones, producing Eurasian plate slides below the in coming years, says Maya bulges and dips in the planet Indo-Australian plate, between human, not mouse, albumin. called Earth tides. These can reduce 1976 and 2008. He found that in Tolstoy at Columbia University The mice were also infected with the pressure on tectonic plates, the years leading up to the 2004 in New York City. human hepatitis, then cured. of animals that live relatively safe lifestyles. And in fact,

however, is clearly not aware of this: it is a tree-living

birds and bats, whose ability to fly helps them escape

relative of the racoon and it lives longer than the tiger,

16 1

NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

For new stories every day, visit www.NewScientist.com/news

Heat is on despite sunspot hiatus EVEN if the sun were to quieten down appreciably for the rest of this century, it would still be business as usual for global warming. The sun goes through an n·year solar cycle during which its luminosity varies according to the number of sunspots appearing on its face. The normal cycle has a small effect on Earth's weather. But sometimes lulls in sunspot activity can last several decades, driving down the sun's luminosity to a "grand minimum". The Maunder

Clock is ticking to save dying ear cells vital to hearing DYING ear cells have been revived with a shot of gene therapy. Ear cells have a hair-like structure that enables them to pick up sound vibrations. They are vital for hearing in mammals but are easily damaged by loud noise, which can lead to deafness. A gene called Mathl has already been used to generate new hair cells in guinea pigs, from the supporting cells that surround them. Now David He at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and colleagues have shown that the same gene can repair guinea

pigs' existing, damaged hair cells - as long as you get to them in time. He's team exposed guinea pigs to the audio equivalent of 200 rounds of gunfire. After this, the animals couldn't hear anything quieter than a chainsaw. When the researchers injected the animals with a Mathl-loaded virus in one ear, hearing recovered almost completely. The team tested the guinea pigs' hearing by monitoring the electrical activity in their brainstems in response to various

noises. Then they viewed the newly grown cells in samples under a microscope. The hair cells also expressed a green protein, showing they had taken up the gene. Although the gene is only temporarily expressed, this is enough to make proteins that repair the cells for life, he says. However, cells could only be saved if they were treated within 10 days of being damaged. He presented the work at the Association for Research in Otolaryngology meeting in Anaheim, California.

minimum lasted from 1645 to 1715 and may have contributed to the little ice age. Stefan Rahmstorf and Georg Feulner of the Potsdam Institute for

Memory control in forgetful flies

Climate Impact Research in Germany modelled what would happen to temperatures on Earth if a grand minimum started now and lasted until 2100. They found that while temperatures would go down by as much as 0.3 0(, global warming would push up temperatures by 3.7 t0 4. 5 ° ( - more than negating any effect of a global minimum ( Geophysical Research Letters,

001: 10.1029/2010GL042710). Gavin Schmidt, a climate modeller at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, agrees. "Even if the sun does something really weird. it would still be dwarfed by what we're doing." he says.

YOU may hate forgetting things, but healthy brains need to be able to lose old memories. Now a protein that is key to forgetting has been identified in flies, and used to speed and slow the decay of painful recollections. It is not known if the protein has this role in people, but the finding is intriguing because the processes that underlie forgetting are largely unknown. Yi Zhong and colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York knew that a protein called Rac has abnormal activity in people with cognitive disabilities. So they engineered fruit flies' genes to enhance or repress the activity of Rac in their brains and taught them to associate a smell with an electric shock. Flies with hyperactive Rac seemed to forget the association faster than normal, and those with low activity seemed to remember longer-even when odours were introduced that should have distracted the flies or conflicted with their memories (Cell, DOl: 10.1016/j.ceI1.200g.12.044). If people forget in a similar way, it could lead to new ways of enhancing memories or erasing unwanted ones.

Warmer seas, paradise lost RISING ocean temperatures might

coral and subjected it to different

leave coral reefs in seriously hot

water temperatures in the lab while

water - without clouds for protection. Graham Jones and his team at

recording how much OMS was released. When the temperature

Southern (ross University in Lismore.

rose to 26 O( from the annual mean

New South Wales. Australia. had

of 24 0(, no OMS was released. If that

earlier found that algae living in coral

happened in the ocean, Jones says.

tissue produce a gas called dimethyl

fewer clouds would form over reefs

sulphide (OMS). When it reaches the

(Environmental Chemistry. 001:

air. OMS helps clouds form overcoral

10.10711en06065).

reefs. Jones says that the clouds block sunlight and so cool the sea. The team have now found that a rise in ocean temperature of only

"It is no coincidence that much of Australia's rainforest lies adjacent to the northernmost reefs;' says Jones. He thinks lower levels of DMS

2 O( would cause some algae to stop

over coral reefs could dry out north

producing OMS. They took staghorn

Queensland's rainforests.

27 February 2010 I NewScientist 1 17

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TECHNOLOGY

bush-fire alarm

i nj u red sold iers THE US military is asking inventors to come up with designs for a robot that can trundle onto a battlefield and rescue injured troops, with little or no help from outside. Retrieving casualties while under fire is a major cause of combat losses, says a posting on the Pentagon's small business technology transfer website (bit.ly/ aRXXQU). So the army wants a robot with strong, dexterous arms and grippers that can cope with "the large number of body positions and types oflocations in which casualties can be found". It should be capable of planning an approach and escape route without prior knowledge ofthe local terrainand geogra phy. The army also wants the robot to be able to cooperate with swarms of similar machines for mass rescues. Inventors have until 24 March to file their ideas.

j.buildenv.200g.10.017). "If it's not flickering then it is not a flame," He says. The team successfully applied this method to video clips of AN AUTOMATIC early warning scenes with various lighting and system that can detect the first flames of a bush fire has been backgrounds. Early detection can prevent a fire taking hold developed by modifying an ordinary CCTV surveillance system. and doing serious damage, but The bush-fire alarm, devised by conventional detectors, which pick up heat or soot particles, struggle in fire-safety engineer Yaping He of the University ofWestern Sydney the breezy outdoors, while infrared cameras are expensive, He says. in Australia and colleagues, uses specially developed software to The system has promise, says analyse video images for the Grant Wigley of the University characteristic flicker and colour of South Australia in Adelaide, who was not involved in the work. of a flame. The software looks for pixels which change from one But he suggests it would need frame to the next, and which also further development to work with smoky fires, where the flames have a fire-like colour (Building and Environment, DOl: 10.1016/ may be masked.

Smart ((TV ra ises

A robot to rescue

S2m has been donated to Wikipedia by G oogle, to he I p with the cost of run ning its computer infrastructure

"Hardly any large corporations have 'inventing' as a job" Too few companies are set upto generate i nnovative technology, as invention is regarded as

too costly, says Nathan Myhrvold, CEO of investment group Intellectual Ventures (Harvard Business Review, 18 February)

27 February 2010 1 NewScientist 1 19

TECH NOLOGY

Speed freaks push at wireless boundaries

Can Wi-Fi rise to the challenge of super- fast, h igh-definition downloads or are its days as the "kille r app" of connectivity numbe red?

Wendy Zukerman

WI-FI as we know it is reaching the limits of its usefulness. It just can't keep up with our appetite for services, such as new video formats, that gobble up bandwidth. So what's next in the world of blisteringly fast home­ based wireless technologies? For clues to where Wi-Fi is going, it helps to delve into the soup of standards that will shape the future of wireless communications. To date, most Wi-Fi hotspots use one of three connectivity standards, 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g - the current favourite. Wi-Fi devices connect to the internet over the radio waves in bands around the 2.4 gigahertz and 5 GHz frequencies, as defined by the international standards body, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Last year, the IEEE agreed the specification for a new Wi-Fi standard, 802.1ln, which operates in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands (see table, right). This standard is theoretically capable of transmi tting data at 300 megabits per second - up from 802.11g's paltry 54 Mbps. The new Wi-Fi standard should make streaming high-definition video a less jerky experience than it has been so far. And further changes may take speeds up to 600 Mbps. Even so, based on past experience, additional bandwidth will soon get eaten up by data-hungry services, so what are the pros pects for even faster wireless transmission? 20 I NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

means it will not penetrate walls, One method being considered confining your super-fast internet is to transmit data in a different band of frequencies - generally to a single room. Sadri thinks that may actually be an advantage, speaking, the higher the frequency, the more data can be improving users' security by preventing outsiders tapping shifted. Several consortiums are already building systems which into your network. can operate around the 60 GHz The big advantage of 60 GHz is that it is free, says Stan Skafidas, band, including the IEEE's proposed 802.11ad standard. an electrical engineer at In mid-20og, the Wireless "At 60 gigahertz you can Gigabit Alliance (WiGig), a d ownload the equivalent consortium oftechnology companies including Microsoft of a Blu-ray d isc onto your laptop in seconds" and Intel, published its specification for 60 G Hz wireless Australia's national technology communication technology. Ali research group, NICTA. This is Sadri, president of WiGig, says that its protocol will support data because governments considered it unusable, so it doesn't require a transmission rates up to 7 Gbps. At that speed, you could download licence, he says. Skafidas has been the equivalent ofa Blu-ray disc developing a chip that has all the components needed for 60 GHz onto your laptop in seconds. connectivity built in. While WiGig's speed would NICTA's so-called Gi-Fi chip easily surpass that ofWi-Fi, its range will be far shorter, at around will comply with the 802.11ad 10 metres in open air. This is standard when it's finalised and because radio waves at 60 GHz are allow downloads of up to 5 Gbps. Because the chip is built in the subject to interference in the air, as the bonds in oxygen molecules same way as most silicon chips, it resonate with the waves. That should be possible to make them Wireless by n u m bers The speed of your internet con nection will depend on the standard used for transmitti n g data

GENERATION

DATA SPEED

FREQUENCY

RANGE

S02.1la

54Mbps

5 . 0 GHz

35m

SOZ.llb

11Mbps

Z.4GHz

3Sm

SOZ.llg

54Mbps

Z.4GHz

38m

SOZ.lln

300Mbps

Z.4 & 5GHz

70m

SOZ.llac *

lOOO M b p s +

5.0GHz

80Z.11ad*

lOOO Mbps +

6 0 . 0 G Hz *

�lOm

draft standardsyetto be published

cheaply enough to compete with Wi-Pi, says Skafidas. NICTA demonstrated prototype chips last year and expects to go into full-scale production soon. "Because it's very cheap, you could envisage a situation where every power point in your house has this chip set into it," says Skafidas, so the short transmission range of 60 GHz won't be a problem. Elsewhere, the IEEE has working groups looking at improvements to Wi-Fi's capability. Its 802.11ac standard will operate around the 5 GHz band, like 802.11a, but data will be transmitted over a greater range offrequencies around that band to boost data rates. The standard isn't expected to be finalised until 2012, though it expects to exceed 1 Gbps. Others think we should abandon the overcrowded airwaves altogether and concentrate on light. Mohsen Kavehrad, an electrical engineer at Pennsylvania State University in University Park and his team have

For daily technology stories, visit www.NewScientist.com/technology

Co nsole's 'cl osed ecosystem' breached with hacke r trick LEAVING a software vulnerabil ity

run the Linux operating system,

unpatched can give hackers a way to

and also that the first edition of a n

seize control of your computer. Such

Xbox game called MechAssaulthas a

vulnerabilities can also be useful if

vulnerability cal led a buffer overflow,

you're in the digital forensics business.

which allows new sets of instructions

So say Chris Hargreaves and Joe Rabaiotti at Cranfield University in

to be run when inserted into the game's code.

5hrivenham, UK. They have found a

So they wrote some Linux-based

way to use vulnerabilities to tease

code that exploited the MechAssault

forensic evidence out of games

vulnerability. It enabled them to burn

consoles. smartphones and e-books,

a copy of the RAM's contents onto

where access to the inner workings

a disc (Digital Investigation, 001:

is restricted by the man ufacturer.

1O.1016/j.diin.201O.01.00S). The

In 2009, they were h ired as

appeal was ultimately lost, but the

investigators by a legal team

pair say such data-accessing exploits

appealing aga inst the conviction of

could have further uses, prying data

a vendor of so-called "modchips" for

from RAM in other closed-ecosystem

the Microsoft Xbox. Because these

devices, such as e-book readers and

chips enable the console to run pirated

smartphones.

games. the vendor was ruled to have

Others agree. RAM is "a bucket

broken copyright laws. The defence

of fascinating stuff", providing rich

team thought that analysis of a "modded" console's random access memory (RAM) might reveal whether

been working on an optical transmission system that is capable of high data-transmission rates. One problem with using light is that you normally need a direct line of sight between transmitter and receiver. Kavehrad's system gets round this by using a high-power laser diode to generate pulses of infrared light, which can be bounced off the ceiling. The reflected light is captured and refocused at the receiver, where a special semiconductor known as an avalanche photo diode turns light into a digital signal. The team have been able to transmit data at 1 Gbps, and think it can go even faster. They presented the work at the SPIE Phonotics West Conference in San Francisco last month. Adding reflectors and more sensors could allow light to be bounced into separate rooms, claims Kavehrad, getting round one of the problems with 60 GHz radio systems. Optical systems should also be "greener" as their

components generally use less energy than those transmitting radio waves. It would not interfere with other electronic systems, making it suitable for hospitals and aircraft, where Wi-Fi use has traditionally been restricted, he adds. While Kavehrad's system is undoubtedly impressive, designing 60 GHz systems will be easier as the equipment is similar to ex isting Wi-Fi. Also, using radio waves to access the internet is a tried-and-tested technology, says Rod Tucker, an electrical engineer at the University of Melbourne, Australia. But even this super-fast wireless connectivity will one day be superseded, so all approaches will remain in play. "There is an ever-growing upward demand on bandwidth. We're not just talking HD video. It's going to be 3D, then super HD video then super 3D. When in the history of telecommunication has the demand for more data stopped?" says Tucker. "Never." •

copyright laws had been breached. But the Xbox is a "closed

"The tools used for the forensic examination of, say, desktop PCs, won't work on the Xbox"

ecosystem", says Rabaiotti. so you cannot run the analytical tools used

forensic data. says Nick Furneaux of

for forensic investigations into, say,

C51 Tech i n Bristol, UK. But care has

desktop PCs. So how could they get a

to be taken not to alter the data, says

peek at its RAM? Microsoft could not

5haun Hipgrave of forensics firm

help because. as the maker of Xbox.

FT5 in 5evenoaks. UK. "As long as

it was worki ng with the prosecution.

evidential integrity is mai ntained. we

Then inspiration struck. The pair knew the Xbox could be modified to

consider all data-extraction methods to be valid." Paul Marks •

27 Februa ry 2010 1 NewScientist 1 21

TECH NOLOGY

You're so pred icta b l e - that's what you r cel l phone says WE MAY all like to consider ourselves free spirits. But when it comes to travel, three months' worth of data from 50,000 cellphone users has proved that the truth is otherwise. The finding could lead to better models of human activity­ perhaps even forecasts - and better design of infrastructure such as cellphone and power networks or transport systems. Albert-Laszlo Barabasi at the Center for Complex Network Research at Northeastern University in Boston and colleagues tracked cellphone users by using logs of which transmission towers each phone connected to for texts or calls ­ information collected for billing purposes (Science, DOl: 10.1126/ science.1177170). Theyfound that people in the study fell into two groups ­ homebodys who rarely leave their local area and jet-setters

who regularly travel hundreds of kilometres. However, both types proved very predictable. "We are all in one way or another boring," says Barabasi. "Spontaneous individuals are largely absent from the population." Analysing the entropy, or randomness, of people's traces showed that in principle the average person's movement history can be used to predict their current whereabouts 93 per cent of the time. The finding was little affected by the age, gender or location of the phone users. Nor did it change much from workdays to weekends. That suggests routine is rooted in human nature, says Barabasi. Proving past moves predictable is not the same as predicting future ones, notes Alessandro Vespignani at the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research at Indiana University

in Bloomington, who was not involved in the study. But further analysis of human movements could allow us to accurately predict them, much as we can the weather, he says. Many models used to design and analyse public infrastructure are built on the assumption that people behave randomly: for example, those used to predict the spread of viruses, or the Erlang model used to estimate the capacity that switches in a communication system need.

The new study raises the prospect of changing that, says Nathan Eagle of the Sante Fe Institute in New Mexico. Cities or buildings could be designed to fit how people really behave, not how planners think they behave ­ although cities in long-urbanised nations with established planning strategies would probably gain only incrementally. "The biggest impact is going to be on the developing world; cities that don't have traditional urban planning," he says. Phil McKenna .

INSIGHT Back to square one for missile-busti ng laser weapons A LASER-TOTING Boeing 747 blasted two missiles out of the sky earlier this month, but despite this apparent success the Pentagon is going back to the drawing board in its search for an anti-missile laserweapon, That may sound like a waste of the estimated $5 billion spentto get the Airborne Laser (ABL) to this point. However, ending the programme may be the most pragmatic decision made in its long history, which began i n 1996 and has sli pped years behind schedule and billions over budget. Critics will welcome the Missile Defense Agency's decision to downgrade the ABL to a "testbed" for use i n general research by the US air

22 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

force, They will be less pleased by plans detailed in the MDA's latest budget proposal to devote the rest of its "directed energy" research budget to a lasertechnology yet to escape the lab, The ABL's problem is that it simply isn't powerful enough to be useful. Last May, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress that its range was limited to 135 kilometres, well short of the mini mum requirement of 200 km, The distance overwhich the recent tests took place has not been disclosed, but it is believed to be relatively short, Future tests will try longer shots, but it looks l i ke the chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) used just can't deliver lethal energy

The Airborne laser just can't deliver a beam with enough power

through hundreds of kilometres of dusty, turbulent atmosphere, That's largely because the laser's bulk limits what can be fitted into a 747, which directs the beam through a turret in its nose, Room for only 6 of the 8 to 14 laser modules the design asked for could be found, The leadi ng candidate to provide

megawatt-class power in a more compact package is an alkali laser, which uses light emitted by vaporised alkali metals such as caesium or potassium, Workat Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has shown such lasers have mass-to-power ratios that far exceed other lasers, making them potential ly suitable for a constrai ned, airborne space, However, the most powerful examples yet reported delivered j ust lOs of watts, nowhere near whatthe MDA needs, It was much more efficient than the ABL 30 per cent compared with 20 per cent - and the technology should scale well, but advanci ng it to the point where it can equal the ABL's missile-beating feats last week will take some time, Jeff Hecht .

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OPI N ION

Keep calm and carry on Climate scientists are looking pretty beleaguered right now. Alan Thorpe knows what it feels like from the inside

Alan Thorpe is head of the Natural Environment Resea rch Council, which funds much of the U K's climate science. He is a meteorologist with 30 years' research experience

WHAT is it like being a climate scientist at the moment? Not much fun. It's a bit like your next­ door neighbour being accused of a crime and everyone in the city you live in, including yourself, being told they are under sus picion as well. Accusations about lack of integrity, deceit and bias are flying thick and fast. To most climate scientists, these accusations seem deeply unfair: mistakes may have been made, but it is wrong to condemn the whole of climate science as incompetent, corru pt or worse. Do climate scientists have a cause, or a battle to win, as some of our critics seem to imply? I don't think so. I am not an 24 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

environmentalist but rather an environmental scientist. The distinction is crucial: science is about the accumulation of knowledge, not fighting causes. Journalists often say that scientists should go on the offensive to win the battle on climate change, but I disagree. The only battle that scientists should try to win is for airtime, to be able to present and debate our knowledge with society at large. We must ensure that this knowledge is available for others ­ policy-makers and the public - to decide what actions to take, but it is not the climate scientists' role to comment on what policy decisions should be taken.

The scientific method is also being questioned. Some say the funders of climate research only support work that sets out to prove that global warming is caused by humans. And peer review, as a means of quality control for proposals and findings, has been criticised as merely a way of giving the nod to those in the cliq ue and keeping out those who are not. But take a look at the facts. Competition for research funding is fierce. For example, my organisation, the UK's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), supports less than a quarter of proposals submitted to it. And science by its nature is

questioning and sceptical. These factors are reflected in the highly critical way in which scientists review each other's research proposals, probing and vigorously challenging assumptions. To minimise the potential for grou p­ think or bias among reviewers, we cast the net as widely as possible. Our decision-making panels do not have fixed membership but vary from year to year. Peer review of research findings is similarly rigorous and sceptical. The system is not perfect, but it's the best one we have. What of the research itself? One way to think of climate science is as an attempt to test the hypothesis that the warming we have observed over the past 50 years and more is caused mainly by greenhouse gases dumped into the atmosphere by humans. This hypothesis was formulated because is has been known since the 19th century that certain gases in the atmosphere warm the climate, and that humans have been adding more of these gases into the atmosphere. Climate scientists have been trying to find evidence that would disprove this hypothesis for t he past 40 years or more. So far they have failed. We still do not discount the possibility that the hypothesis is wrong. There are other ways in which the climate can warm over such a period oftime. This is why scientists are trying to assess the significance of all the ways in which the observed global warming could be occurring. I cannot stress enough that scepticism and challenge of

Comment on these stories atwww.NewScientist.com/opinion

this kind are fundamental aspects of the way that climate science is carried out. It is incumbent on those who claim that the science is flawed to bring forward a body of peer­ reviewed evidence that shows the hypothesis is false. So far they have failed to do so. I don't think that it exists. Of course, our understanding of climate change still has many uncertainties in it, but we're not covering them up. Scientists have made huge advances developing rigorous ways to not only predict how that climate will change, but also to estimate the size of the uncertainty in that prediction. It is not easy to communicate why the uncertainty is there and how big it is, and we have to get much better at that. But research continues to reduce uncertainty, including new NERC programmes on glaciers, ocean circulation and acidification, the water cycle and the role ofthe biosphere. "I don't think you could organise a conspiracy on such a scale, even if you wanted to"

Perhaps the most astonishing allegation we face is that climate science is a grand conspiracy of thousands of scientists in many countries. I am absolutely convinced that it is not. I don't think you could organise one on this scale amongst scientists, even if you wanted to. Like it or not, the weight of evidence is such that we must conclude that human activity is almost certainly the cause of the recent global warming. It would be perverse to conclude otherwise. Climate science will go on. No doubt mistakes will be made along the way; scientists are human beings with failings like anyone else. But society is surely able to factor this into its assessment of climate science without throwing the baby out with the bath water.•

One minute with . . .

Pa u l Raffae l e Wh ile visiting all the sp ecies ofgreat ap es left in the wild, Au stralia's celebrated adventure writer had a few close shaves

You are best known for your travels in search of cannibals. What made you turn your attention to the g reat apes?

On my tri ps to Africa I kept seeing the effects of logging, poaching and the charcoal trade, Forests are becomi ng like deserts and the numbers of apes are plunging, I passionately wanted to bring their plight to the notice of people who might be able to do somethi ng to save them, So I set myself a quest - to see all the species and subspecies of great apes in the wild, I especially wanted to see the Cross river gorilla, a subspecies of the western gorilla, There are only 300 left and no reporter had ever visited them before, Some of the places you travelled to

PROFILE

are notorious trouble spots, yet you

Pa u l Raffaele, an Australian journal ist has visited some of the world's most dangerous wilds, He describes his q uest to see all the great apes in his new book Among the Great Apes

still went. Why?

Looki ng at captive apes doesn't tell you much aboutthem, In the wild, each subspecies of ape has its own culture and behaviour, It's the great apes' bad l u ck that their habitats are in some of the most violent, corrupt places on earth, But if you are going to reporta war you have to go and see for yourself, and if you are goi ng to report on great apesyou have to do the same, You were charged by a half-tonne silverback

stacked in a pile, That was terrifying because we didn't know how close they were, They have AK-4? rifles and large-bore shotguns to kill elephants, and you never know how they will react when you cross paths, But remember, the guys trying to protect great apes have to face this every day.

gorilla. How did you react?

I'd been told that if you stay put, drop to your knees and put some leaves in your mouth, they generally aren't going to beat you up - so I did j ust that. If you run you could provoke a chase and then they might bite a chunk out of your neck, Forest elephants are scarier: it's amazing how fast an overweight middle-aged city-dweller can move when threatened by an angry elephant

In the end you n ever saw a Cross river g orilla in the wild. Were you disappointed?

They were there - I heard a male thump his chest in warni ng - but they didn't show themselves, I'm happy about that I'm pleased that they hate humans and kept out of our way, That i mproves their chances of survival. Can the g reat apes be saved?

Did you have any other potentially deadly encounters?

Notwith the apes, Bonobos aren't violent, the orangoutans were wonderful and the chimps were only violent towards each other, But you are always in dangedrom other humans, In the Central African Republicwe came across a camp used by poachers - the fire still warm, their sleeping mats

The only way to guarantee there will be some left in the wi ld in 50 years is to have pockets of heavily defended habitat with anti-poaching patrols at least as well armed as the poachers, The i mpetus and the funding must come from western governments and they must ensure that it goes where it is needed, Interview by Stephanie Pain

2? February 2010 1 NewScientist 1 25

OPINION LETTERS

Dilution debate

primates is 1 part in 109 of body weight when taken orally (lAMA, vol 285, p 1059). That's a fair bit stronger than the 1 in 1023 dilution the 10:23 protesters were demonstrating against, but is not inconsistent with inducing a response at the "eighth potency" - 1 in 108 dilution, as I recall Hahnemann reported for some toxins. Bishops Stortford, Hertjordshire, UK

contained any molecules of the original mercuric chloride, yet they were the most effective. Standard clinical trials are almost designed not to detect whether homeopathic treatments are effective, since treatment has to take into account a patient's individual state and requirements on each occasion for any success to be antiCipated. Mass dosing is therefore bound to be ineffective. London, UK

From Geoffrey Crockford Martin Robbins reports on a demonstration where over 300 activists "overdosed" by taking a whole bottle of a homeopathic remedy based on arsenic ( 30 January, p 22). They aimed to show that arsenicum album homeopathic pills contain no arsenic, as you might expect given the dilution. About two years ago I analysed arsenicum album homoeopathic From Julien Glazer From Alan Calverd From John de Rivaz Ifhomeopathic products work The reason homeopathic tablets and found traces of arsenic. Samuel Hahnemann's original experiments in homeopathy treatment appears effective is that on believers that's fine. However, I had previously analysed other I do think that there should be a investigated the possibility that the practitioner spends a lot of homeopathic tablets and had government health warning on all time with the patient in calm, always found traces ofthe material the body's immune systems might be stimulated by toxins, packets, stating: "This medication serene surroundings. In they were said to contain. Thus, I is not suitable for sceptics". comparison, conventional would suggest that you cannot rely prompting a natural healing process - an extrapolation from on the mathematics of dilution. Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, UK medicine closely resembles a the principles of vaccination and production line with patients In terms ofthe value to people, spending hours on the road the pills may work via the placebo acquired immunity. The mysticism that now visiting various different health effect, which is enhanced by a Consume r emissions surrounds some homeopathic centres miles apart in space, and label and a trace of something practice makes it easy forget From Giovanni Baiocchi and weeks apart in time. thought to be good and relevant. If evidence-based medicine was Jan Minx Remember that it has been shown that very dilute solutions can still have an effect: a lethal dose of In his article on UK carbon presented to patients in a serene, that coffee tastes better when botulinum toxin - the most emissions (6 February, p ll), ordered and unchaotic manner drunk from your favourite cup. poisonous substance we know - in it would then be a fair test, and the Phil McKenna misinterprets Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, UK our findings. The article implies public would vote with their feet. Until such a thing happens, that the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural treatments such as homeopathy Affairs (DEFRA) is deferring the will flourish. Enigma N u mber 1584 Truro, Cornwall, UK publication of a report that shows UK emissions " rose by 13.5 per Trisquare cent between 1992 and 2004". From John Poynton ADRIAN SOMERFIELD However, this is not a new Before we rush to follow Martin Robbins in rejecting homeopathy, result. In 2008, in a report entitled I invite you to place a digit in each of the nine spaces in a 3 x 3 array there are still questions raised in Development of an Embedded so that each digit occurs its own Carbon Emissions Indicator, the literature that should be number of times (e,g, if 3 occurs investigated. DEFRA published the finding W. E. Boyd published a pa per in that carbon dioxide emissions it must occur exactly three times), You can then read eight numbers: the British HomoeopathicJournal from producing goods in the UK three across, three down, and two had decreased between 1992 and (vol 44, p 7) reporting on the action of micro-doses of mercuric 2004 as CO2 emissions from the diagonals read from the top down, are different and the sum What will be the sum of all cannot be written using digits chloride on the hydrolysis of consumption of goods and the digits used if all these numbers from the square? starch with malt diastase. While services kept growing. Rather than standard dilutions of mercuric reiterate these findings, what we WIN El5 will be awarded to the sender of the first correct did in our research was quantify chloride deactivate enzymes, a series of carefully controlled answer opened on Monday 29 March, The Editor's decision is final. the relative importance of various Please send entries to Enigma 1584, New Scientist, Lacon House, and double-blind procedures drivers behind the increase in consumer emissions in the UK. showed that as the mercuric 84 Theobald's Road, London WClX 8NS, or to [email protected] (please include your postal address), chloride was progressively The 217-megatonne rise in Answer to 1578 Abou t turn: 20 counters is the smallest carbon emissions mentioned in diluted, accompanied by mechanical shock, the rate of number possible the article, which McKenna The winner Richard Brookfield of Worcester, U K attributes incorrectly to hydrolysis was increased. The final dilutions would not have "emissions from imported 26 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

For more letters and to join the debate, visit www.NewScientist.com/letters

goods", arises from a changes in consumer choice and rising levels of consumer demand for goods and services manufactured in the UK and abroad. In fact, the rise in emissions from the production of imported goods and services was roughly 84 megatonnes. In our view, instead of asking why a report on consumer emissions in the UK commissioned by DEFRA has not yet been published, it might be more interesting to think about why so few other governments in industrialised countries have analysed the complex origins of their emissions. Durham, UK

Moreover, those authors who report that temperatures during formation of the Apex rocks would have been too high to support life, state that their study "cannot be extended directly to the microfossil of the Apex chert" (Nature Geoscience, vol 2, p 640). We have never found non­ biological organic matter in the geological record, and thousands of carbon isotopic analyses are consistent with the presence of autotrophs, which syntheSise organic matter from inorganic constituents, dating back to 3.5 billion years ago. Additionally, the hydrocarbon biomarkers in 2.7-billion-year-old Australian shales mentioned in the article were present in the rocks when they formed (Earth Hot rocks, hot topic and Planetary Science Letters, vol From William Schopf, University of 273, p 323) as are biomarkers in California; Hans Hofmann, McGill rocks of similar age from South University; and Malcolm Walter, Africa (Precambrian Research, vol University ofNew South Wales 169, p 29). Given all this evidence, Nick Lane's article on the origins it seems clear to us that a thriving of oxygen on Earth misses key microbial biota was in existence points when discussing the fossil 3.5 billion years ago. record (6 February, p 36). Los Angeles, California, US The article mentions 3-5-billion­ year-old stromatolites in the Apex chert ofWestern Australia, and Out of data questions whether they are biological. The stromatolites From Sean Barker come from only one of 12 known In speculating that we might lose stromatolitic units older than 3 vital knowledge if civilisation were to collapse, your authors billion years. These stromatolites are of many types, found in missed the very real threat that it diverse settings, including conical might happen in the near future forms that, like their modern (30 January, p 36). analogues, require the presence of Most software is updated every a layer of mobile microorganisms few months, and is frequently completely rewritten, which can at the time of rock formation result in errors in reading the (Annual Review ofEarth and Planetary Sciences, vol 27, p 313). Fossils from the Apex chert in Western Australia have been shown to be cellular and have organic walls (Precambrian Research, vol 158, p 141). In support of this, Bradley De Gregorio and co-workers concluded that the chemistry ofthe Apex organic matter implies "that the Apex microbe-like features represent authentic biogenic organic matter" (Geology, vol 37, p 631).

old programs. This can be a real problem for the engineering systems in planes and ships, for example, where accurate information is needed to maintain and repair them decades after they are built. And what about the computer models that prove systems are safe? In years to come, the models showing that the Large Hadron Collider is safe may no longer be trustworthy after several generations of upgrades to the software. Printing out the relevant information or stockpiling old computers will not help, since people in the future will not only need the data, they will have to understand it. Aside from the software side of the problem, there is an even more difficult question: do we know how to train people to understand the old models? My own work in the development of a standard for the long-term archiving and retrieval of aircraft product data suggests that these problems are not as rare as the article suggests. Bristol, UK

No scratch, do sniff From Fans Vandenberg Clare Wilson mentions the large volume of research dedicated to the suppression of armpit odour (19 December 2009, p 54). I have been wiping my armpits with methylated spirits ever since I discovered the odour has a bacterial source : a simple and cheap solution to the problem. The smell stays away for days in sweaty summers and my armpits are no longer irritated by daily applications of deodorants. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

For the record • In our discussion of packaging

Cie nes swap

overkill, it the was packaging-to-goods

From Dan Evans Mark Buchanan suggests that there might have been a stage between the emergence of a universal genetic code and full­ blown Darwinian evolution (23 January, p 34) where genomes capable of heredity and mutation first united in single organisms. Understanding this "prevolution" is important: it is a process that has not stopped just because evolution proper has started. The horizontal transfer of genetic information between organic organisms happens all the time, including in human beings, where it surely has enormous repercussions. Given our current ignorance of horizontal gene transfer, we should treat our experiments in this area with great care. Cardiff, UK

received that was infinite, not the

ratio of the empty box Geoff Robinson goods-to-packaging ratio as we said (Feedback, 6 February} - a description that would have applied only if Geoff's present had arrived u nwrapped. • In our article on rock varnish (13

February 2010, p 40) we said the ExoMars mission would return rock sam ples from Mars to Earth. In fact, this is part of the separate Mars Sample Return mission, pencilled in for launch 2020 to 2022. Letters should be sent to: Letters to the Edi tor, New Scientist,

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27 February 2010 I NewScientist 1 27

OPI NION TH E BIG I DEA

Sniffi ng out the truth about pheromones From synchronised periods to sexual attraction, many believe that

ph eromones rule h u man behaviour. But th ere's just no evidence for such chemical triggers, even in mammals, says Richard L. Doty

FOR more than 50 years, researchers - many have been said to accelerate the onset of puberty, block pregnancies and influence of them prominent scientists -have assumed that single or small sets of innate biochemicals oestrous cycles and hormonal surges in a range of mammals, although no one has trigger behavioural and endocrine responses in mammals ofthe same species. These agents, ever identified the agents involved. In humans, pheromones have been claimed never chemically identified, were labelled to influence sexual behaviour, mood, length "pheromones". The term was borrowed from of menstrual cycles, even which seat people insect studies of the early 1930s, where it choose in waiting rooms. By 2000, dozens of replaced " ectohormone" (external hormone) to describe the single biochemicals which brands of perfumes and aftershaves contained supposed pheromones, contributing to a trigger predictable responses in relatively multibillion-dollar industry. Even so, in simple organisms. 2005, the question of whether humans have It was not until the 1 960s that the quest to find pheromones in mammals became a really pheromones was listed by Science among the top 100 unanswered scientific questions. big deal. In Science in 19 62, endocrinologists In my book, The Great Pheromone Myth, Alan Parkes and Hilda Bruce wrote that "endocrinology has flowered magnificently I argue on both empirical and theoretical grounds that mammalian pheromones do not in the last 40 years; exocrinology is now exist. Parodying Lewis Carroll's 1876 children's about to blossom". The father of sociobiology, poem, The Hunting ofthe Snark, I suggest E. O. Wilson, suggested the possibility that the half-century-long search for mammalian "pheromones are in a special sense the lineal ancestors of hormones" in a 1972 ScientifiC pheromones has been a snark hunt. Not only have mammalian pheromones American article. Even Alex Comfort, author not been found, but the idea oversimplifies of the 1970S best-seller The Joy ofSex, argued same species are not specific to that species the nature of chemical communication among and comprise many compounds, some of in aNature paper that pheromones were mammals. "Pheromone" has no more scientific them affected by diet, stress and other factors. likely to exist in humans. value in describing chemically mediated The two main classes of pheromones Since then, a plethora of studies has said to exist in mammals are " releaser" implicated pheromones in many mammalian behaviours or endocrine processes than (biochemicals that elicit particular "visuomones", "audiomones", or activities, including sex, maternal behaviour, behavioural responses in others) and "primer" "touchamones" would in describing fighting, nesting, and the recognition of phenomena created by non-chemical stimuli. (biochemicals that alter endocrine function in members of one's own species. Pheromones others). In fact, nearly all phenomena Not surprisingly, scientists do not agree on attributed to releasers in mammals turn out what defines a pheromone, and attempts by PROFILE Richard L. Doty is director of the University of to depend on learning, context, or novelty. chemists to identify such putative agents Take mating preferences. When mice of strain have failed. Among the many reasons for this Pennsylvania's Smell and Taste Center. His awards include the US National Institutes of Health's James failure is that the basic tenet of the concept ­ A are fostered as babies with mice of strain B, they tend to prefer to mate with B mice rather that one or a few hormone-like chemicals, A. Shannon award (1996), and the Association for Chemoreception Sciences' Max Mozell award for than with A mice, their own genetic strain. specific to each species, are triggers of social outstanding achievement in the chemical senses behaviour - is wrong. In mammals, chemically Pheromones need not be invoked to account for this behaviour as it can be explained by the mediated behaviours are rarely hard-wired, (200S), This essay is based on his book, The Great Pheromone Myth Uohns Hopkins University Press) and most biochemicals involved in smell of the foster nest: the fostered mice communication between members of the mate mainly with mice that smell the same. 28 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

For more opinion articles and to add your comments, visit www.NewScientist.com/opinion

Sexual behaviour in humans depends on morethan simple chemical signalling

The learning of smells can occur before birth, with adult offspring of a number of species, including humans, showing a stronger preference for foods and smells to which their pregnant mothers were exposed. As for primer pheromones, in mammals

concept is that it forces complex behaviours and stimuli into two categories - pheromonal and non-pheromonal, essentially innate and learned. Mutually exclusive categories cannot share attributes or features and so this false dichotomy precludes multiple categories or continua, and so too narrowly represents the "In mammals, chemically diversity of mammalian behaviour. The evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr mediated be haviours argues that the situation is even more are rarely hard-wired" complex, pointing out that the categories of innate and learned are not, in fact, mutually most phenomena attributed to them turn out exclusive. In an article in Am e rica n Scientist in to reflect physiological and psychological 1974, Mayr infers the existence of "neural responses to abnormal changes in the social and programs" that are to varying degrees open or physical environment, such as stress. And when closed to change according to experience ­ it comes to hormones and the endocrine system, programs that are " translations" of genes. those influences come from many sources. At one extreme are those programs, and the Another problem with the pheromone behaviours that go with them, which cannot

be modified, and at the other are those which are totally open to modification. Naturalist Konrad Lorenz thought along similar lines, suggesting that a continuum exists across species, with those at one end having extremely specialised instinctive behaviour patterns, and those at the other end having behaviour patterns much more open to purposive control. Not surprisingly, more intelligent species, such as mammals, fall into the latter category. Among the most publicised claims for the existence of human pheromones is menstrual synchrony. After exposure to supposed pheromones, the menstrual cycles of close friends and room-mates are said to synchronise so at some point their periods overlap. No such pheromones have been identified, and on statistical grounds alone periods will overlap for a significant amount oftime in women with slightly differing cycle lengths. Anthropologist Clyde Wilson of the University of Missouri, Columbia, and biopsychologist Jeffrey Schank of the University of California, Davis, reported that the statistical analyses used in menstrual synchrony studies are flawed in many ways. Neither is there any convincing biological or evolutionary basis for menstrual synchrony. As anthropologist Beverly Strassmann at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor explained in a 1997 Current Anthropology article, pregnancy and lactation, not menstrual cycling, takes up most of the reproductive years of women in societies where birth control is not typically practised (societies which presumably reflect the norm during the majority of human evolution). In the Dogon of Mali, for example, women menstruate less than 130 times in a lifetime. As they are segregated while they menstruate they form an ideal study grou p. Using hormone profiles and other techniques to overcome the statistical problems, Strassmann found no evidence for synchrony in women who ate and worked together. All in all, it looks as if "pheromonology" has become a modern-day phrenology, providing simple but false explanations for most chemically mediated social behaviours and endocrine responses, satisfying only those who seek simple answers to complex phenomena. Perhaps once the idea that mammals have pheromones is dispelled, we can work towards an appreciation of the real role chemicals play in their lives .• 27 February 2010 1 NewScientist 1 29

30 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

COVER STORY

Eart 's nine lives How m uch fu rther ca n we push the planeta ry l ife -support syste ms that keep us safe? Yo u m ay be s u rprised/ say s Fred Pea rce

U

P

TO now, the Earth has been very kind to us. Most of our achievements in the past 10,000 years - farming, culture, cities, industrialisation and the raising of our numbers from a million or so to almost 7 billion - happened during an unusually benign period when Earth's natural regulatory systems kept everything from the climate to the supply of fresh water inside narrow, comfortable boundaries. This balmy springtime for humanity is known as the Holocene. But we are now in a new era, the Anthropocene, defined by human domination of the key systems that maintain the conditions of the planet. We have grabbed the controls of spaceship Earth, but in our reckless desire to "boldly go", we may have forgotten the importance of maintaining its life-support systems. The demands of nearly 7 billion humans are stretching Earth to breaking point. We know about climate change, but what about other threats? To what extent do pollution, acidifying oceans, mass extinctions, dead zones in the sea and other environmental problems really matter? We can't keep stressing these systems indefinitely, but at what point will they bite back? Last year, J ohan Rockstrom, director of the Stockholm Environment Institute in Sweden,

sat down with a team of 28 luminaries from environmental and earth-systems science to answer those questions. The team included Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen, NASA climate scientist James Hansen, Gaia researcher and "tipping point" specialist Tim Lenton, and the German chancellor's chief climate adviser Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. They identified nine "planetary life-support systems" that are vital for human survival. They then quantified how far we have pushed them already, and estimated how much further we can go without threatening our own survival. Beyond certain boundaries, they warned, we risk causing "irreversible and abrupt environmental change" that could make the Earth a much less hospitable place (Ecology and Society, vol 14, p 32). The boundaries, Rockstrom stresses, are "rough, first estimates only, surrounded by large uncertainties and knowledge gaps". They also interact with one another in complex and poorly understood ways. But he says the concept of boundaries is an advance on the usual approach taken by environmentalists, who simply aim to minimise all human impacts on the planet. Instead, he says, boundaries give us some breathing space. They define a "safe space for human development". And here they are. > 27 February 2010 1 NewScientist 1 31

ACI D OCEANS Boundary: Global average aragonite

"saturation ratio" no lower than 2.75:1 Pre-industrial level: 3.44:1 Current level: 2.90:1 Diagnosis: Safe for now, but some oceans

wil l cross the threshold by mid-century

This is a relatively new issue, rarely discussed until 10 years ago, More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means more is absorbed by the oceans, creating carbonic acid, Since the i ndustrial revolution, the pH of the ocean surface has fallen from 8.16 to 8,05, equivalentto a 30 per cent increase in the concentration of hydrogen ions, Acidification per se isn't a problem, but it has serious knock-on effects on other aspects of ocean chemistry, The most important of these is that it lowers the amount of calcium carbonate dissolved in surface waters, This doesn't matter much right now, Buta critical point will be reached if waters become too low in aragonite, a form of calci um carbonate used by many organisms, i ncluding corals, to build their shells, Below a certain threshold, aragonite shells and coral dissolve in seawater, So far, the average aragonite "saturation ratio" in the oceans has fallen from a pre-industrial level of 3.44:1 to 2,9:1. That means, on average, that there is still almost three times as much aragonite as is necessary to keep shells from dissolving, There are wide regional variations, however, and recent studies suggest parts of the Arctic and Southern Oceans could drop below the crucial aragonite saturation ratio of1:l by 2050, Nobody knows quite what would happen then, Some species might be eaten away by the acidic water, It could be the coup de grace for many corals already poisoned by pollution and bleached by warming waters, Emptier oceans would be able to absorb less CO2, accelerating global warming, To prevent any ocean waters from enteri ng this parlous state, Rockstrbm proposes keeping the average global aragonite saturation ratio above 2.75:1. That would mean keeping atmospheric CO2 levels below about 430 parts per million, which is lower than the 450 ppm that scientists say is the safe upper li mit for global warming,

OZON E DEPLETI ON Boundary: Average concentration of stratospheric

ozone no lower than 276 Dobson units Current level: 2B3 Dobson units Diagnosis: Safe, and improving

The ozone hole that formed in the stratosphere over Antarctica in the 1970s was a classic example of an 32 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

The safe boundary for fresh water use is looming ever closer

environmental tipping point. Ozone-destroying chemicals built up in the frigid stratosphere until they abruptly - and unexpectedly - caused the ozone layer over the Antarctic to shift into a new state, with ozone all but absent in the spring, Nobody saw it coming, as nobody understood at the time thatthe chemistry of polar stratospheric clouds makes ozone-destroying chemicals more potent, leading to runaway ozone destruction, The world acted quickly to heal the hole, With most of the culprit chemicals now banned, the worst of the danger has passed, It is not over entirely, however, One concern is global warming, Trapping more heat close to the Earth's surface leaves the stratosphere colder, This means that the Arctic stratosphere could get cold enough in coming years for the remaining ozone­ eating chemicals in the atmosphere to open up an ozone hole over the northern continents, Away from the poles we look safe, unless there is some unknown quirk of atmospheric chemistry waiting to trip us up, Rockstrbm and Paul Crutzen of the Potsdam Institute for Cl imate Impact Research in Germany -who won his Nobel prize for ozone- layer chemistry - recommend preventing stratospheric ozone concentrations outside the polar regions from

falling by more than 5 per cent, or below a global average of 276 Dobson units (a measurement of the density of stratospheric ozone), With the concentrations of ozone-eaters still falling, it seems l i kely that we will stay within this planetary boundary,

F RESH WATER Boundary: N o more than 4000 cubic kilometres

of fresh water consumed per year Current level: 2600 cubic kilometres per year Diagnosis: Boundary will be approached

by mid-century

Humans now control most of the world's rivers, damming and diverting many of them to death, Thanks to us, a quarter of the world's river systems no longer reach the ocean for at least part of the year, This is drying out swathes of the landscape, emptying wetlands and destroying fisheries, Excess water use threatens humans in three ways: shortage of dri nking water, loss of irrigation for agriculture, and changes in climate, Over the past 50 years, dams on rivers in central Asia have dried up the Aral Sea, Withoutthe influence of the sea on climate, the entire region has become hotter in

Beyo n d the bou nda ries W e have already ove rste pped three of nine planetary boundaries and are at g rave risk of transgressing several others

Current

- Proposed safe

operating levels

operating levels

'?J'\ t. Of B I ODIVERSITY LOSS

Individual species may not matter much on their own, but collectively they form ecosystems that provide a range of vital "ecosystem services", such as recycling waste, cleaning water, absorbi ng carbon and maintaining the chemistry of the oceans, Although we know that high levels of biodiversity are essential to healthy ecosystems, it is not yet clear how much can be lost before ecosystems collapse, nor which species are the key players in a given ecosystem, So Rockstrbm's team settled on crude extinction rates as the best "interim i ndicator" of the state of ecosystems, They put the current extinction rate at more than 100 extinctions per million species per year, and rising, That compares with a natural "background" extinction rate of around 0.3, Up to 30 per cent of all mammal, bird and amphibian species wi ll be threatened with extinction this century, This cannot go on safely, Current rates may even mirror those of the "big five" mass exti nctions of the past half-bill ion years, including the meteorite strike that did for the dinosaurs, While the world carried on after those events, it was massively transformed, To avoid a repeat, they suggest a safe long-term annual extinction rate of no more than 10 per million species per year, By that measure, they say, "humanity has already entered deep i nto a danger zone", if the current extinction rate is sustained",

N ITROGEN AND PHOSPHORUS CYCLES

IIWe n eed to l im i t the consumption of rive r water to a rou nd 4000 c u b ic k i l o m etres per yea r, but we have a way to go before we h it that l i m it

Boundary 1: No more than 35 million tonnes

of nitrogen fixed from the atmosphere per year Current level: 121 million tonnes per year

Diagnosis: Boundary far exceeded and effects worseni ng Boundary 2: No more than 11 million tonnes

of phosphorus to flow i nto the oceans per year

summer, colder in winter and more arid all year, Meanwhile, as rivers run dry, we are pumping out ever more of the underground reserves held in the pores of rocks, many of them fossil reserves that will never be replaced by the rai ns, And we are disrupting other parts of the hydrological cycle by draining wetlands and razing forests, Deforestation of the Amazon wi ll reduce evaporation rates in the tropical Americas, potentially changing weather patterns in the northern hemisphere, including the Asian monsoon, Rockstrbm, who is a hydrologist, suggests that preventing regional water crises from disrupting our global l ife-support systems wil l require limiting the consumption of riverwaterto around 4000 cubic kilometres per year, That is roughly one-third of the flow down accessi ble rivers, excluding remote untamed rivers in rainforests and the Arctic. We have a way to go before we hit that limit. Current use is

about 2600 cubic kilometres, But the excess is "largely committed already" for irrigating the crops needed to feed the growing world population, says Rockstrbm, To keep within the boundary whi le feeding the world, we might have to curb irrigation of non-food crops like cotton or biofuels,

BIODIVERSITY Boundary: Annual species extinction rate

no more than 10 per million per year Current level: At least 100 per mill ion per year

Diagnosis: Boundary far exceeded

Humans are drivi ng species to extinction by ploughing up or paving ove r their habitats, by introducing alien species like rats and weeds, by poisoning them with pollution, by hunting them for food and, increasingly, by changing the cli mate,

Current level: 9 million tonnes per year

Diagnosis: Boundary not yet exceeded

Nitrogen is an essential component of all l iving things, yet only a small amount of the planet's stock of nitrogen is in a form that living thi ngs can absorb, This is "fixed" out of the air by bacteria in a range of leguminous plants, But you can have too much of a good thing, So other microbes "denitrify" ecosystems, converti ng the element back into forms not available for living things, This is the nitrogen cycle, Farmers have always interfered with the cycle, because nitrogen avai lability often limits the fertility of soils, They have boosted production by planting more leguminous crops, like clover. Then, a century ago, the nitrogen cycle changed foreverwhen Fritz Haber, a German chemist, invented an industrial process for fixing nitrogen > 27 Feb ru a ry 2010 1 NewScientist 1 33

from the atmosphere to make chemical fertiliser. Today, 80 million tonnes of nitrogen is fixed from the atmosphere in this way each year and poured onto the world's fields. But farming inefficiencies mean that most of this nitrogen runs off the land i nto rivers and oceans. Much of the nitrogen that does get into crops is later excreted by humans into sewers. We further fix nitrogen by cultivating legumes and burning fossil fuels, timber and crops. Put all that together, and we fix around 121 million tonnes of nitrogen a year, far more than nature does - and nature cannot cope. The excess nitrogen is acidifying soils, killing vulnerable species and saturating ecosystems so that they lose the ability to recycle the nitrogen back into the air. Meanwhile, some over-fertilised lakes and seas in heavily farmed regions fill with "blooms" of aquatic life which then die and decompose, sucking all the oxygen out of the water in the process. The legacy of such blooms is anoxic "dead zones". At the last count there were more than 400 such zones in the oceans, covering 250,000 square kilometres, including parts of the Gulf of Mexico, the Baltic Sea and waters between Japan and Korea. Rockstrbm tentatively sets the safe level for human additions to the nitrogen cycle at about 35 mil lion tonnes a year, one-quarter of the current total. Reaching that figure while continuing to feed the world is, to say the least a tough ask. Phosphorus, also used as fertil iser, is potentially part of the same problem. Around 20 million tonnes of phosphorus is mined from rock deposits annually and about half of this ends up in the ocean - about eight times the natural i nflux - where it contributes to blooms and dead zones. Rockstrbm's team estimates that we can add up to 11 mil lion tonnes of phosphorus per year without serious repercussions.

ice-free land to growing crops. But he says how safe that wi ll prove depends a lot on howwe use the land. Will biologically rich and hydrologically important ecosystems be protected? Will farms be allowed to empty rivers and fill the wider world with nitrogen? Will cities contain their pollution? Currently we have converted around 12 per cent of ice-free land to farming - about 15 mil lion square kilometres. The boundary will l i kely be reached in the next few decades. To avoid going beyond it will require, above all, concentrating farming more intensively in the most productive areas, while containing its wider impact.

CLI MATE CHAN GE Boundary: Atmospheric CO2 concentration

no higher than 350 parts per million Pre-industrial level: 280 ppm Current level: 387 ppm Diagnosis: Boundary exceeded

This is the big one. Voluminous historical evidence shows that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the planet's main thermostat and that raising CO2 concentrations warms the planet. We have done that in spades by burning fossi l fuels, raising

"Having com e cl ose to destroying th e ozone l ayer, we ste pped back f rom the b rink, That shows action is poss i b le - a n d can be successfu l"

LAN D USE Boundary: N o more than 15 p er cent

of ice-free land to be used for crops Current level: 12 p er cent Diagnosis: Boundary will be approached

by mid-century

The spread of farming into natural ecosystems, especially tropical forests, continues apace. Half the world's tropical rainforests are gone and large areas of grasslands once open to wildlife are now fenced i n for livestock ranching. According to Rockstrbm, the expansion of agriculture is the major driver behind loss of ecosystem services and threatens to both exacerbate climate change and damage the freshwater cycle. Meanwhile, urban areas are spreading across more densely populated regions like east and south Asia, Europe and North America. Rockstrbm sets his land-use boundary at the conversion of no more than 15 per cent of global 34 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

La nd use is currently with in safe limits but climate change is not

atmospheric levels from a pre-industrial 280 parts per million to the current 387 ppm, Politicians still debate what a dangerous level might be, but Rockstrbm's team, advised by James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, says we passed the danger threshold more than 20 years ago, when we exceeded 350 ppm, Why choose 350 ppm? After all, we have passed that already, and we are still here, The answer is that we haven't yet experienced all the warming from that amount of CO2, not by a long chalk, Every degree of warming caused directly by CO2 is amplified by feedback processes, Melting sea ice exposes dark ocean, which means that the planet absorbs more solar heat. Warmertemperatures i ncrease evaporation and so raise atmospheric levels of water vapour, another potent greenhouse gas, These feedbacks are the basis forthe IPCe's warning that a warming of 1 °C due to CO2 will escalate to around 3 ° (, It may get even worse, Some cl imate scientists, notably Hansen, argue that there are other "slow feedbacks", For example, warming will eventually destabilise natural reserves of CO2 and another greenhouse gas, methane, stored in soils and permafrost. If so, warming of 1 °Cdue to CO2 could eventually escalate to 6 0(, This is fartoo much to handle, says Rockstrbm, To keep the big polar ice sheets largely intact and prevent massive flooding will require limiting warming to just 2 0(, The widely-accepted target to achieve that is 450 ppm, but if the slow feedbacks are correct we will have to pull CO2

levels back under 350 ppm to reach that target. The good news is that we may have a bit of time, because those long-term feedbacks will take a while to kick in fully. Probably,

AEROSOL LOADI NG Boundary: Not yet identified Diagnosis: U n known

Human activity churns up the earth, creati ng dust, whi le burning coal, dung, forests and crop waste fills the atmosphere with soot, sulphates and other particles, We have more than doubled the global concentration of these aerosols since pre-industrial times, That haze influences the climate and is a threat to human health, so "aerosol loading" should be considered a potential planetary boundary, The impacts are highly variable, though, Some aerosols, like sulphates, reflect solar radiation, causing cooling, Others, like soot, absorb and re-radiate it, causing warming, The global balance of these heating and cool ing effects is unclear, Aerosols also affect the climate in otherways, For example, the near-permanent brown haze across southern and eastern Asia is a subject of intense research as it appears to influence both the timing and the positioning of the monsoon, Meanwhile, aerosols reduce crop yields by fal l ing on fields, and also clog up human lungs, contributing to mi llions of deaths from lung and heart d isease, The damage from aerosols can be great, but their highly variable impacts left Rockstrbm's team unable to put a number on safe limits,

CH EMICAL POLLUTION Boundary: Not yet identified Diagnosis: Unknown

There are approaching 100,000 different human­ made chemical compounds in use around the world today, in millions of d ifferent products, Additional compounds are created as by-products of manufacturing, Chemicals are mainly a worry because of their impact on the health of humans and wildlife, Among those of greatest concern are toxic heavy metals l ike lead, organic pol lutants that accumulate in tissues, and radioactive compounds, A handful of these are already controlled. For instance, the "dirty dozen" persistent organic poll utants - which include DDT, PCBs and dioxins ­ are controlled under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Compounds, But the impact of most others remains undiagnosed, And even apparently benign chemicals may combine to produce toxic effects greater than the sum of their individual effects, One idea considered by Rockstrbm's group is that autism and ADHD in children may result from the widespread exposure to low concentrations of cocktai ls of these chemicals in the environment, creating whatthey call "a silent pandemic of subtle neuro-developmental disorders in children, possibly on a global scale", An all-encompassing "chemicals boundary" could be valuable, But, say the authors, it is too early to say how or where it should be set.

CO NCLUSION However you cut it, our life-support systems are not in good shape. Three of nine boundaries - climate change, biodiversity and nitrogen fixation - have been exceeded. We are fast approaching boundaries for the use offresh water and land, and the ocean acidification boundary seems to be looming in some oceans. For two of the remaining three, we do not yet have the science to even guess where the boundaries are. That leaves one piece of good news. Having come close to destroying the ozone layer, exposing both ourselves and ecosystems to dangerous ultraviolet radiation, we have successfully stepped back from the brink. The ozone hole is gradually healing. That lifeline has been grabbed. At least it shows action is possible - and can be successful. • Fred Pearce i s New Scientist's senio r environment correspondent

27 February 2010 1 NewScientist 1 35

Produ c i n g offspring is n ot the happy, col laborative affa i r it might appear. All sorts of nasty tricks are deployed i n this particular battle of the sexes, say Pat Monaghan and Tim B i rkhead

Who's the daddy? E

VEN the most romantic evolutionary biologist knows that sexual reprod uction is rarely a harmonious affair. Among most higher animals it is often predicated on fierce fighting, showy one-upmanship, exploitation and deception. Charles Darwin himself drew the battle lines, when he set out his ideas on sexual selection to explain the evolution of traits that provide mating advantages - either through contests between members of the same sex or by increasing attractiveness to the opposite sex. Much of what Darwin said still guides our thinking. However, since the mid-19th century it has become clear that there is more to successful reproduction than mere copulation. Producing offspring is both expensive and something of a gamble: ideally you want a partner with good-quality genes that are compatible with your own, and someone to provide effective and reliable childcare. Getting your offspring safely from conception to adulthood is a huge investment, so the question of which partner has control over

"Discriminating females d irect the course of reproduction far beyond the mating process itse lf"

36 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

the process is very important. We now know that the competition to get genes into the next generation is fought on many fronts, often on unseen ground within the female reproductive tract, and that victory does not always lie where it might appear. In evolutionary terms, and sometimes in real terms, males and females fight to get the maximum reproductive output for the minimum input. Identifying which sex wins has a long history and remains a highly controversial area of biology that is still full of surprises. Yet the question of who prevails in this particular battle of the sexes is too tempting to dismiss. So, drawing on the most recent discoveries and our own experience on the frontline of this research, we consider how attitudes have see-sawed over the centuries and attempt to identify which sex really has the upper hand when it comes to reproduction. From the early days of civilisation, people noted the presence of eggs in the natural world and recognised their great importance. Eggs seemed to be where life began, and this observation had a profound influence on many aspects of ancient societies and religions. The idea of a cosmic egg, from which all living things arose, was widespread as a creation myth. Nature was logically viewed as a female figure and the egg a powerful symbol of fertility. Even now, we still refer to" mother nature" and the egg remains central to our Easter celebrations. Early civilisations knew that eggs were produced by females, but they had almost no idea about the male contribution to reproduction. Even by Homer's day in the 9th and 8th centuries BC, females were thought to become pregnant through "something in the air" or pOSSibly by a divine stimulus. Some 400 years later, Pythagoras and then Aristotle

promoted the idea that it was not the air, nor God, but the male who contributed that all-important " something", and the female was relegated to a mere vessel in which the embryo developed. So was born a homocentric view of reproduction that changed little for several hundred years. Even the 17th-century anatomist Hieronymus Fabricius, aka "the father of embryology", believed that "semen perfects the egg". This male-centred view was eventually challenged in 1651 by the celebrated English physician William Harvey in his Disputations Touch ing the Generation ofAnimals. Harvey, like many others, believed that semen transfer was involved in reproduction but he wanted to find out exactly how. That's where his troubles began. In his numerous dissections, he tried and failed to find evidence of a role for semen within the female body. So he reluctantly came to the conclusion that "all that is alive comes from the egg". It wasn't long, however, before the homocentric view got a renewed boost. In 1677, a Dutch draper called Antonie Leeuwenhoek, dubbed the "father of the microscope", discovered that the semen of humans and other animals contained thousands of "animalcules". He correctly identified these as that special something needed for the creation of a new individual. Des pite the great disparity in size between eggs and sperm, the idea that the male contribution was uppermost sat well with the male-dominated scientific community. There was much talk of "preformation": the idea that inside each sperm a tiny preformed human was biding its time until an egg should provide it with a suitable place to grow. Nicolaas Hartsoeker, an obliging pupil of Leeuwenhoek's, even produced what became an iconic drawing of the homunculus he thought he could see >

27 February 2010 1 NewScientist 1 37

curled up inside a human sperm. Still, not everyone was taken in. The sceptics included John Ray, another key 17th-century figure, the father of natural history. In his 1691 book The Wisdom ofGod, Ray recognised that preformation was unlikely since many of the poor homunculi would be doomed if only one sperm was needed for each egg, as Leeuwenhoek thought. In an early version of the Monty Python credo " every sperm is sacred", Ray contended that "God cannot be that wasteful". Other detractors of the idea also wondered how far preformation could be taken, envisaging ever smaller homunculi nestling inside the testicles of each homunculus like a series of Russian dolls.

Equal opportunities? With some biologists still arguing for the primacy of the egg, scientific opinion became polarised - ovists and spermists wrangled over who had the upper hand in reproduction well into the 19th century. However, with the discovery offertilisation by the German biologist Oscar Hertwig in 1857, the observed union of egg and sperm gave rise to the idea that offspring were in fact a blend of their two parents. There was a problem, though. While some features of offspring did indeed seem to fit this pattern, many did not. Even Darwin dabbled with the blending theory before coming to the conclusion that this was not the major principle of inheritance and that science did not yet have the answer. Enter Gregor Mendel. His experiments in the mid-19th century on the inheritance of simple traits in peas - apparently unknown to Darwin although he and Mendel were contemporaries - provided the answer. After random mixing of genes to create eggs and sperm, offspring inherit one functionally equivalent form of each gene from each parent. Since some ofthese "alleles" are dominant over others, sim pie blending does not apply. Sometimes an allele from the mother would win out and sometimes one from the father. If the dawn of genetics generated a somewhat uneasy truce between ovists and spermists, Darwin's ideas about sexual selection stoked the flames of com petition again. In his controversial 1871 book The Descent ofMan, and Selection in Relation to Sex, Darwin argued that individuals of both sexes evolve the morphology and behaviour most likely to provide them with highest success in the mating game. Darwin's focus on traits that influence the success of males in competition for access to females encouraged many contemporaries to view females as largely a prize rather than a 38 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

participant in mating. As the British biologist Walter Heape stated in 1913, the male "hunts for his partner and is an expender of energy: the female is passive, sedentary, one who waits for her partner". However, Darwin also argued that female choice could drive the evolution of secondary sexual characteristics in males. But the idea that females might pick and choose males for their own ends didn't wash with the Victorian establishment. Women, let alone females of other species, surely did not have the cognitive capacity to be so discerning. Research by behavioural and evolutionary ecologists now tells us that Darwin was right about the importance of female mate choice. Far from being passive players, female choice is an important driver of sexual selection. What's more, discriminating females direct the course of reproduction far beyond the mating process itself and in ways that Darwin could hardly have imagined. We are all familiar with the elaborate ornaments and weaponry developed mainly by males to win pre-copulatory contests ­ think of the peacock's tail or the stag's antlers. Much less well known are the complex internal structures and tricks that females have evolved to increase their control over which sperm actually fertilise their eggs. In many species, females mate with more than one male and after sperm enter the female reproductive tract, so-called cryptic female choice can take place through a range of mechanisms, including selective sperm storage and s perm ejection. Males have of course risen to this challenge.

"Even after fertilisation the two sexes battle it out ove r whose g enes will be most i nfluential" I n a n escalation o f the reproductive power struggle, they have evolved all manner of countermeasures to foil female interference (see table, left). These include strategies and structures to enhance their prospects of winning the competition with other males' sperm and avoid expulsion from the female reproductive tract. Very recently, for example, researchers at Harvard University discovered that when sperm from several male deer mice are present in the female reproductive tract, the s perm from the same male can recognise and hook up with one another. Joining forces as a brotherhood in the race to get to the egg allows them to travel faster, increasing the chances that one of their number will hit the jackpot (Nature, DOl: lo.1038/news.201o.22). You might think that once fertilisation has occurred the game is over-after all each sex makes an equal genetic contribution to their offspring. You would be wrong. Just getting your genes into offspring is not enough. New evidence is emerging that the arms race continues even after fertilisation, with the two sexes battling it out over whose genes will be most influential in shaping the biology and behaviour of their offspring and how much time and energy must be invested in them. One important card that females have

Battle of the sexes

M a l es and females of various species e m p loy different measu res a n d countermeasures to win the battle for control of fertilisation

i 0� !G � i0�

MALE TRAIT: Two-part co pulatory courts h i p i n c l u d es tapp i n g female abdomen with h i n d legs a nd w avin g legs in the air

FEMALE TRAIT: Female releases egg for fertilisation only after copu latory courtship

MALE TRAIT: S p i ny, damaging phallus deters female from mating with others FEMALE TRAIT: Thickened oviductwall to m i n i mise damage during copulation

III

MALE TRAIT: "Tra umatic i nse m i n ati on" di rect l y thro u g h t h e body wall. avoi d i n g any barriers females m i g ht have evolved i n their reproductive tract

FEMALE TRAIT: A groove in the exoske l eton ensures inse m i nation occurs into th e spermalege, a u n i q u e structure conta i n i ng many immune cells to m i n i m i s e t h e risk of infection

--'

� o LL --'

:i w

MALE TRAIT: Subordinate males forcibly copulate with females FEMALE TRAIT: Females i m m ed iately eject sperm of unwanted males

LL

MALE TRAIT: Forced extrapair co p u l at i o n a nd l arge phallus FEMALE TRAIT: Anato mically complex oviductto divert or block phallus

In many mammals the entire sperm enters the egg, bringing proteins that may influence development

to play is the sheer size of the egg relative to the sperm. In addition to the genes and some crucial nutrients, eggs also contain a cocktail of hormones, organelles, antibodies, antioxidants and RNAs, all of maternal origin. These are known to influence growth, hormonal balance, personality, behaviour, and possibly even sex in some cases. In the past 15 years, there has been a substantial increase in investigations into the nature of these maternal effects on offspring, and also whether they can be manipulated by females according to circumstances. We now know, for example, that female birds alter the levels of testosterone in the yolk of their eggs depending on the anticipated hatching order ofthe chicks, social conditions where they are nesting, and even the attractiveness of the father. Increasing testosterone can make some nestlings more com petitive than others.

Express yourself! That's not all. Recent research shows that contrary to what was previously supposed sperm also contribute more than just genes to the egg. In many mammals it is not just the DNA-containing sperm head that penetrates the egg - the whole thing, tail and all, goes in, transferring thousands of messenger RNAs and proteins. These might be involved in directing embryo development, perhaps even counteracting some instructions from the egg cytoplasm. Some of these male RNAs are of the type that controls gene expression, so their effects on the embryo could be very

a few fishes. While only a few genes have been implicated they appear to be significant. The im printed genes include several with a role in embryo growth and development, most of which are also expressed in the brain, meaning that key traits like body size, cognitive ability and personality might be moulded by epigenetic inheritance. One intriguing observation is that genomic imprinting appears to be associated with species in which the mother nurtures the embryo inside her body, so contributing far more to its survival than does the father. This leaves mothers potentially open to exploitation iffathers could manipulate gene expression in their offspring so as to further increase maternal investment in the embryo. But once again, females are a step ahead. Genomic imprinting is rare because most of the methyl groups that have accumulated on important, since gene activity must be finely DNA over an individual's lifetime are stripped away following fertilisation. However, some orchestrated in the development of an do make it through to the next generation­ embryo. As yet, their role is unclear. and a few years ago a team led by Toru Nakano Nonetheless, the latest line of research at Osaka University in Japan, discovered that suggests the egg still has the upper hand. This comes from a burgeoning interest in so-called mothers appearto manipulate this process. "epigenetic effects" - changes in the way genes They found that demethylation mostly affects the DNA that embryos inherit from the father, are expressed without the need to alter the while the mother's DNA is protected by a DNA sequence itself. Inside a cell, genetic material takes the form special protein in the egg produced by a gene called stella (Nature Cell Biology, vol g, p 64). of a complex package of DNA and histone proteins called chromatin. It is modification of So, at the last post, where there is a conflict this structure - commonly by adding a methyl over control of offspring development and the group in a process known as methylation - that level of investment in its growth, victory seems to lie firmly with the mother. It looks leads to epigenetic effects. Epigenetic effects can be induced by signals from within the cell like eggs rule after all. or from other cells. Exposure to nutritional, This maternal control of growth and development has some fascinating chemical or physical environmental factors such as food shortage or temperature changes implications. It means that, for many of the can result in lifelong changes for the organism. traits important in the mating game, such as body size and brain function, the father's Sometimes epigenetic effects are even passed genes might not be as influential as the on to the next generation, in which case the mother's. So perhaps the fine details of what a process is know as genomic imprinting. It is particular male looks like are not as important this that provides another arena for sexual conflict - if one parent selectively switches off to females as biologists have been apt to think. Instead, what females could really be after or "silences" genes coming from the other. when they choose the sperm of one male over Here females seem to win out. another is the male whose genes they can With genomic imprinting, which gene is most easily manipulate behind the scenes. expressed depends on which parent it came from. Of course, this contravenes one of the If so, that calls for a huge shake-up in the way basic tenets of Mendelian genetics - that we view sexual selection. • alleles from the mother and father are Pat Monaghan is a professor in the department of functionally equivalent. Nevertheless, genomic im printing has so far been identified ecology and evolutionary biology at the Un iversity of Glasgow, U K. Tim Birkhead is a professor of behaviour in a small number of organisms - mostly mammals and flowering plants, with possibly and evolution at the University of Sheffield, U K 27 Feb ru ary 2010 1 NewScientist 1 39

How are twisters born, and why do they die? Will Gray sta lks Tornado Al ley to find out

5

JUNE 200g. It's mid-afternoon and I am sitting with a group ofresearchers in a dusty parking lot in north-west Nebraska. There's a growing buzz of excitement as equipment is checked one last time and then we set off. Finally, we are about to catch a glim pse of what we have been hunting for weeks: a tornado. I have joined the biggest tornado hunt in history. The two-year, $12 million project, called Verification of the Origin of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment, or VORTEX2, began on 10 Maywith the aim of recording, for the first time, the entire life cycle of a tornado. 40 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

A team of more than 100 researchers has assembled an unprecedented variety of instruments which it hopes will force tornadoes to give up their secrets. Until today, though, things had not gone to plan. Over the last three-and-a-halfweeks, this nomadic tribe has travelled almost to,OOO kilometres, through six states of America's Midwest, searching for signs of supercells, the huge thunderstorms that spawn tornadoes. They'd had no luck, though. Each time the 40 vehicle convoy reached a promising area, either nothing developed or they arrived just in time to watch the storm fade away.

"The storm is 12 ki lometres away a nd travelling straight towa rds us, We have a high probability of a tornado here,"

the jet stream. When strong winds and high temperatures destabilise this layer cake violent thunderstorms can be triggered. During the most active months of May and June, people who live in "Tornado Alley" - a region stretching between the Rockies and the Appalachian mountains - are on high alert. In 2009, the tornado season started early with a major outbreak in April, so the prospects for VORTEX 2 looked good. Then settled weather descended. With the jet stream pushed north, conditions were too stable to kick-start severe thunderstorms.

From a clear blue sky

Last Spring VORTEX2 scoured the Midwest, hoping to catch sight of a twister as it formed

This is in stark contrast to 2008 - one of the most violent years on record, when 1 691 tornadoes killed over 120 people. Tornado reports for 2009 are down 75 per cent, and the team is getting desperate. Morale-boosting pep talks, practice instrument deployments plus the odd hour of relaxing down time have helped keep the researchers ready for their big moment. And now it has arrived. We get the call to say it's looking good just over the border in Goshen County, Wyoming, and 40 minutes later, we are parked beneath heavy skies, watching a swirling mass of black cloud. Over the radio comes the voice of

Karen Kosiba, co-ordinator of the VORTEX2 probe vehicles: "The storm is 12 kilometres away and it's travelling straight for us. We have a high probability of a tornado here. Please get ready to deploy your pods ... Tornadoes occur around the globe, but where we are sitting is the most active place on the planet. The conditions here are just right to conjure up a perfect storm. In spring, the air column is split into three layers: warm, moist air blown in from the Gulf of Mexico lies close to the ground; hot, dry air from the Mexican desert is next; and on top sits a cooler layer pulled in from the Rocky mountains by "

On the morning of 5 June, it looked like more of the same: there were blue skies all round. Yet supercells are so localised that they can seemingly appear from nowhere. A day's prospects are revealed more by subtle indicators - temperature, humidity and the wind profile up through the atmosphere ­ than by clouds in the sky. These are monitored regularly using radar and weather balloons and so far, we are told, the signs are good. Researchers have a pretty good understanding of how supercells form. As the moist layer of air closest to the Earth's surface heats up in the morning, it begins to rise. It keeps rising until it is stopped by the layer of hot, dry air around 1 to 2 kilometres up. This collision creates characteristic cumulus clouds with flat tops. By the late afternoon, though, if the air becomes warm enough, it can punch through this cap into the cooler air above. This results in a rapid updraft that is visible as plumes of clouds shooting into the sky. For tornadoes to form, this rising air needs to be rotating, which is where the region's winds come in. In Tornado Alley, warm surface winds typically blow from the south-east while cooler upper-layer winds come from the west. Where these winds cross, a horizontal tube of spinning air is created. This rotating tube is then drawn up until it is vertical by the ra pid updraft of air in the now stormy atmos phere. This rotating air mass is known as a mesocyclone, the defining feature of a supercell and the potential parent ofa tornado. Much beyond this, however, remains speculation. Most mesocyclones don't result in tornadoes, and forecasters have a difficult time predicting when they will form. A big step forward came during VORTEX1, a similar project in 1994 and 1995. Joshua Wurman, now head of the Center for Severe Weather Research in Boulder, Colorado, used a Doppler weather radar mounted on a truck > 27 Feb ruary 2010 1 NewScientist 1 41

As the thu nderstorm approaches, the race is on to deploy networks of weather sensors i n its path

to study the insides of a tornado. This revealed the movement of air currents by tracking rain and hail, as well as recording the wind speed and direction, all in high resolution. Since then, around 140 tornadoes have been studied using these mobile radar systems. But they have their limitations: radar doesn't see clearly close to the ground so there is a dearth of ground-level measurements. What little information there is suggests that winds around tornadoes are more intense at lower levels than first thought, which could play a significant role in keeping tornadoes going. One intriguing measurement made recently by Wurman's team suggests that at ground level tornadoes might not be formed of a symmetrical solid vortex but have a structure similar to a cartwheel, with jets of air rushing inwards towards a central core. Researchers suspect that this could help increase the power of a tornado once it is formed.

First tornado arrives None of this explains why only 1 in 5 supercells gives rise to a twister, though, or why some tornadoes are more dangerous than others. Which is why I am sitting here watching a writhing mass of black cloud. At around 4 pm, beyond the town of La Grange in Wyoming, it finally happens. Descending out of the cloud like a bony finger, a thin funnel stretches, then fades. But the clouds keep swirling and moments later the finger stretches down again until it touches the ground. Our first tornado has arrived. The armada is perfectly positioned, laid out across 60 square kilometres, with all instruments ready. Video cameras and 10 mobile radars are trained on the storm, weather balloons are released into the clouds, and Sticknet, a network of 24 tripod­ mounted sensors, is deployed ready to measure conditions just above ground level. Suddenly it is our turn. With the tornado grinding towards us at around 30 kilometres per hour, we have 20 minutes to deploy 12 instrument pods, each one containing temperature and humidity sensors, wind speed indicators and a pair of cameras. Laid out at Iso-metre intervals ina carefully planned sequence, the pods should gather data as the twister passes over them. "The pod drop is dangerous if you don't do it right," Wurman had warned me in a training session two days earlier. "The pod teams are the closest of any to the tornado so they have to get in, deploy and get out qUickly." Since tornadoes are anything between 42 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

"Al l the signs suggest this sto rm is a monster that will throw out multiple tornadoes" 200 and 1500 metres wide, the pods must be precisely positioned to score a direct hit. And with the average tornado lasting no more than 10 minutes you only get one shot. The deployment complete, we are about a kilometre away from the tornado as the spinning grey funnel tears across the road behind us. For a full minute, the 200-kilometre-per-hour winds create a deafening roar, rocking our vehicle like a toy. Then calm returns as the tornado heads east. We watch as it stretches out into a white tube before disappearing back into the clouds. Six days later, we are in Missouri, sitting in the path of what looks like the most violent storm ofthe season. All the signs suggest it is a monster that will throw out multiple

tornadoes. Yet for some reason it produces nothing. Clearly our powers of prediction are lacking. But we grab what data we can since this event could still prove valuable. A few months later, Wurman and his team have had a chance to examine the results. The 5 June event, Wurman tells me, "is by far the best tornado data ever collected - and the results are already looking quite intriguing". The Doppler radar proved particularly successful. It took a snapshot of the supercell once a minute, and thanks to careful planning and a bit of luck, Wurman now has movies made up of more than 30 detailed frames where normally he would have just a handful. These videos show a strong downward current of air on the trailing side of the supercell, called the rear flank downdraft (RFD), which many researchers believe is crucial for the creation of a tornado. This downdraft is driven by less-buoyant, cold air sinking to the Earth's surface. Several mechanisms help feed it, including falling hail, rain and snow, which help to drag the air downwards. As it falls, evaporating

raindrops and melting hail and snow, processes which take heat from the atmosphere, reduce the air temperature. "Without this downdraft it's very difficult to spin up a tornado," says Wurman. "The challenging thing is that all supercells have an RFD, yet not all produce a tornado." The temperature of the downdraft may be the deciding factor. The VORTEX2 team had planned to record this using uncrewed aerial vehicles, but unfortunately air traffic control restrictions meant that none could be flown. Instead, they are using the radar measurements to infer temperature inside the tornado. Early results indicate that the downdraft was a little cooler than the air flOWing into the tornado, but not so cold as to slow the updraft, says Wurman. Comparing this temperature information with that

collected during the storm which failed to produce a tornado could confirm this, he says. Another key aspect of the project is to understand the role of ice, hail and rain throughout the life cycle of a tornado. As well as being important for the creation of a downdraft, some researchers believe that the formation of rain and hail plays a crucial role in setting up the tornado's updraft, by releasing latent heat energy which can feed the rising air currents. For this reason, Katja Friedrich from the University of Colorado in Boulder is using the radar measurements to monitor the position and size ofthese particles in the clouds throughout the tornado's lifetime. Unfortunately, there's bad news about our pod drop: the tornado made a last-minute turn and passed between our instruments. However, an anemometer, which measures

Anato my of a super sto rm Understanding how thund erstorms spawn twisters w i l l provide earlier warnings to people in d a n g e r areas. Data from Vortex2 should hel p fi II in critical d eta ils ofthis process

CAP

D I R ECTI O N O F STORM

Hot air drives a rapid updraft and a

The upd raft pushes through the warm

thunderstorm starts to form

air cap into the cooler air above

air rotate; upd raft starts to spin

which feeds into base of storm

Sinking cold air forms rear flank downdraft

14 kilometres

Studies suggest that tornado formation requires a strong rear flank downdraft which is cooler than the updraft. Results from VORTEX2 seem to show that a pulsing flow of air in the downd raft determines the strength ofthe tornado

wind speed, on the armoured tornado intercept vehicle (TIV), which was parked directly in the storm's path, provided a slice of readings right through the tornado's eye. In addition, a rapid-scanning Doppler radar that takes measurements every 7 seconds was just 400 metres away, providing unprecedented detail, says Wurman. "You can see individual features s pinning around the tornado." In fact, we seem to have found details that have never been observed before, behaviour that could finally link the downdraft to the formation and ultimate power of a tornado. "This is very preliminary," says Wurman, "but it seems the vertical winds in the RFD are pulsing with variable strength." A pulsing RFD showed up in computer models in 1997, but this is the first time it has been seen in such detail in real life, says Wurman. "It is possible that the pulses are related to changes in tornado intensification," he says. Such fluctuations may act like a set of bellows, pumping the tornado with new energy. Indeed, the radar measurements reveal that the tornado seemed to intensify a few minutes after the RFD did, and die out when the RFD pulses weakened. Wurman hopes that further analysis of the VORTEX 2 data will show why this pulsing occurs. Another unusual feature of our tornado was the wind patterns at its base. Results from the TIV showed that rather than the cartwheel pattern Wurman had previously found, the air on the edge of the tornado appeared to spiral smoothly inwards at 45 degrees, while near the centre it spins in a circle. This suggests that air was blowing into the tornado, says Wurman, but not reaching its core where there was probably a strong downdraft. Mapping the wind structure onto video images taken right next to Wurman's radar also threw up some surprises. It seems that the winds outside the funnel are stronger than those at its edges. Understanding this flow should help the researchers calculate how much air is going into the tornado and help explain why some tornadoes do more damage than others. These findings are just the start. Wurman and colleagues hope to discover even more when the concluding part ofVORTEX2 hits the road in May this year. Catching another twister or two may not be sufficient to unravel the complex birth of these beasts, but it will help hone the tornado-forecasting models. And that is critical when every extra second of warning could help save lives.• Will Gray is a freelance writer based in London UK ,

27 February 2010 1 NewScientist 1 43

Spa m/ spam/ and more spa m O riginally the canned meat product that threatened to engulf a 1970 sketch from

Monty Python's Flying Circus, spam now overruns the internet. With the rise of"botnets" -

networks of "zombie" computers programmed to send out mass mailings with out their

owners' knowledge - something like 9 out ofevery 10 emails are now unsolicited, Spammers have been dealt a few blows in recent years, but as long as there is money to be made they

are unlikely to go away anytime soon, Jim G iles assesses the state of spam

THE GEOGRAPHY OF S PAM I N 1978 " , The fi rst unsolicited mass email - a n advertisementfor a

" ,A N D NOW

forthcoming sales event - was sent in May 1978, At the

time, ARPANET, t h e forerunner of the internet connected just a few academic and m i litary labs in the

US

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• San Francisco Bay Area

• Rome, New York

• Los Angeles

• Boston

:T H E I R RESIST I B LE R I S E OF S Pf.M

A global m a p o f where s p a m comes fro m i n 2 0 0 9 looks rather l i k e a map of internet connectivity - although anomalous hotspots in Brazi I, ---------------

central America, south-east Asia a n d southern Europe sta nd out

SOURCE: POSTINI

�Based on an analysis by the Goog le-owned Postini serv ice, which currently : --i provides- email -security -for- s om e -l$ million business users;- p roces -s ing upwards ---- -- , :of 3 billion email connection s a day:

2004-2 005

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S p amme rs have to set u p ind i i d a l email

accounts to send spam, making it easy to block and ke ep i ng levels relatively low

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n o o; u....; -'-_________---:-_______________, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .L..-....;a;;.; m.;;.; ; t.;.;. f= .;.;;..;...;.; .;.;.; I;.;; _ _ _

44 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

, , . . . . . _ - _ . . . . . . . . - - - - - - _ . . . . . . . . . . _ - - - _ . . . . . . .. . . _ - _ . . . . . . . . - - - _ . _ - - _ . . . . . . . . _ - _ . . • . . . . . . - - - - - _ . . . . . . . . . - _ - - - - - _ . . . . . .. . _ - - _ . . . . . . . . . - - . - - - .. � . . . . . . . _ - - - - _ . , ,

• • • • • • • • •

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Septem ber 2009 27 February 2010 1 NewScientist 1 45

BOOKS & ARTS

A d eafen i n g si l ence As SETI a p p roaches its 50th ann iversary, three books tackle the mystery ofthe m issing aliens

The Eerie Silence by Paul Davies, Allen Lane, E25 How to Find a Habitable Planet by James Kasti ng, Princeton U niversity Press, $29,95 We Are Not Alone by Dirk Schulze­ Makuchand David Darling, Oneworld, £12,99 Reviewed by M ichael H a n lon

SIXTY years ago, space aliens were the preserve of lunatics and I eccentrics, thanks I to decades of sci-fi schlock, flying­ saucer nonsense and Lowellian fantasies of Martian canals. Then, in 1950, came Enrico Fermi and his paradox -"Where the hell is everyone?" - and, 10 years later, the first attempts to put the search for ET on a scientific footing, courtesy of Frank Drake, who pointed a radio telescope at Tau Ceti and heard... silence. Since then, a modestly funded programme to detect alien radio transmissions has stepped up a gear, and we have made significant astronomical discoveries pertinent to the question of alien life. Despite this, Fermi's paradox has deepened, as the sheer size and antiquity of the universe has become increasingly apparent. Today it is rare to meet an astronomer who doesn't believe that the universe is teeming with life. There is a feeling in the air that light will soon be shed on some of science's most fundamental questions: is Earth's biosphere unique? Do other minds ponder the universe? In April, the world will celebrate the quinquagenary of SET!, the search for extraterrestrial 46 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

and ripe for a shake-up. intelligence, so it seems a good time to take stock of the silence. Rather than expecting to stumble upon a high-power radio Three new books tackle the issue in three different ways. One, an transmission aimed directly at immensely readable investigation Earth, we might look for ghostly ofthe SET! enterprise (with a neutrino signals or messages surprising conclusion); the second, encoded in the otherwise a technical guide to what we clockwork light flashes from should be looking for and how; pulsars. We should also be on and the third, a left-field argument that the alien question has already been answered. In The Eerie Silence, Paul Davies -who makes a living tackling the biggest questions of life, the universe and everything­ begins with the assumption that the universe should be full of life. There are more stars out there than there are grains of sand on all the Earth's beaches, and now that more than 400 planets have been found orbiting other stars, we can be almost certain that most stars have planets. Surely our Earth is not unique. "The cosmos may be buzzing with life, but it is not Star Trek out there in our part of the ga laxy"

But while the odds against life seem to be shortening, thanks to those exoplanets, it is now pretty clear that our part of the galaxy, at least, is not a hive of obvious alien activity. The cosmos may be buzzing with life, or even with intelligence, but it is not Star Trek out there. Perhaps we are looking in the wrong way, muses Davies. At the core of his rather wonderful book is a list ofimaginative alternatives to the current focus on radio signals from nearby stars - a search that is, he claims, shackled by anthropocentric assumptions and innate conservatism,

the lookout for alien life forms ­ or their probes - closer to home, and search for circumstantial evidence that aliens are here, or at least were here, perhaps millions of years ago. Beacons in the asteroid belt, perhaps, bits of ancient machinery left on the moon, or suspicious polygonal

For more reviews and to add your comments, visit www.NewScientist.com/books·art

craters. Maybe ET will tune into the internet: the ietLorg website has been set up to allow them to do exactly that. Not all the arguments here totally convince. Davies assumes aliens will be, well, alien: slithery tentacled things with seven eyes, and so forth. Actually there may be good reasons, espoused by the University of Cambridge biologist Simon Conway-Morris, why ET may be more like us than many imagine. And I disagree with Davies that the physical a ppearance of our putative neighbours is of no interest. Humans are visual creatures.

gripe aside, there are nuggets here. learned how to farm or make fire. It would help if we knew just For one, Kasting dismisses some When drawing conclusions how life got started on Earth, and where. We know genesis happened of the " rare Earth" arguments put about the probability of alien life, forward by Peter Ward and Don we must always remember that early, when Earth was a very different place to what it is today, Brownlee a decade ago. He argues when it comes to hard data we have a sam pie size of precisely one. We persuasively that Earth's large and this marks the starting point moon and strong magnetic field have to date seen no signals and no for James Kasting's rather are red herrings; neither is a messages, and found no microbes: technical account of what makes prerequisite for life. The second nothing, as Davies says, looks a habitable planet and how we should go about finding such fishy at all. Furthermore, we see part of his book is a detailed no sign of a galactic conquest by bodies. Kasting too often eschews account of the search for Earth­ everyday language and resorts like exoplanets, and prospects self-reproducing von Neumann for future success. machines - proof alone, say some, to scientific shorthand, even For a few scientists, the alien that ET does not exist. Finally, we if no accuracy is gained and some clarity is lost. But, this question has already been have absolutely no idea how or answered. Not by the UFO loonies where life on Earth got started The Allen Telescope Array is being but by the Viking landers which, and whether this was a fluke or a near-inevitability. Ifthe latter, built in California to listen out for aliens 34 years ago, produced startling results when they baked and it prompts the question of why wetted samples of Martian soil. only one genesis, something In We Are NotAlone, Dirk Davies tackles in some depth. Schulze-Makuch and David Three books, three takes on Darling flesh out the argument the silence from space. Kasting that the landers, which touched tends towards the mainstream down in 1976, probably did find view: a few hundred civilisations life. The mainstream explanation for the initial apparently positive "Believing in aliens may findings - some unusual abiotic be fashionable, but it is the result of sentiment Martian soil chemistry - does not, the book claims, hold up. And as much as discovery" the Vikings' gas chromatograph­ mass spectrometer, which found in our galaxy, separated by vast no organics in the heated soil, gulfs of space. The title of Schulze­ leading scientists to rule out Makuch and Darling's well­ the discovery of life, may have written and provocative book is self-explanatory. Paul Davies malfunctioned and never tested any soil at all. confesses his desire to conclude Their case for Martian life is that they are out there - but fairly compelling; less so, their admits that they may not be. cases for life on Titan and other Earth is odd, life odder and intelligent life the oddest of all. moons of the gas giants. Perhaps the most convincing case is for There is great mystery here, and a biosphere 50 kilometres above it is not clear we are any nearer to solving it than we were the scorching surface of Venus. The title is perhaps misleading: 50 years ago. Believing in aliens "not alone" implies intelligent is fashionable these days, but that company, not microbes. does not mean it is justified. However many places there It is the result, as Davies says, of are out there where life could sentiment as much as discovery. We may yet be alone. But this, the survive, a habitable planet is not the same as an inhabited most awe-inspiring of all possible one, as Kasting points out. And, solutions of the Fermi paradox, is surely the one we will never be as Davies writes, we should no more assume that evolution tends able to prove . • towards intelligence than it does Michael Hanlon is science editor of towards the elephant's trunk. There were likely dinosaurs as the Daily Mail i n London and author of Eternity: Our next bil/ionyears clever as cats, yet in all those millions of years not one reptile (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) 27 February 2010 1 NewScientist 1 47

For more reviews and to add your comments, visit www. NewScientist.com/books-art

BOOKS & ARTS

A co m p l icated riff Writing about m u sic is said to be like dancing about architecture, but it's worth having a g o

predict the future - an inclination that evolved as a survival tactic. While many topics about music are covered in this authoritative tome, a notable omission is the social role of music. Ball does note that "we should never forget that music takes place in a social context" but, unfortunately, this comes on the penultimate page. The manner in which music creates a grou p identity, rather than being an isolated individual experience, does not get the attention it deserves. However brilliantly Ball writes, and however extensive his knowledge and insights, Elvis Costello's challenge sometimes defeats the author. Without being able to immediately listen to the musical scores he depicts or the tracks he cites, one is inevitably left having to take his arguments on faith rather than on the evidence.

Toxic ta les The Arsenic Century: How Victorian The Music Instinct: How music works and why we can't do without it by Philip Ball, The Bodley Head, £20 Reviewed by Steven Mithen

LISTENING to a Bach fugue, a guitar riff or even a nursery rhyme sets a person's brain running, hunting for patterns, creating expectations and performing feats of memory. The listener is blissfully unaware that their brain is jumping through hoops to bring them the experience we call " music". In The Music Instinct, Philip Ball has gone further than anyone in challenging Elvis Costello's dictum that writing about music is like dancing about architecture; having said that, the book could be a slog for readers who start with a limited understanding of scales, key signatures, intervals 48 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

and musical notation. The initial chapters have deceptively simple subtitles such as "what are musical notes" and "what gives music its pulse", but rapidly become a real challenge in spite of valiant efforts by Ball, who uses diagrams, anecdotes and a multitude of examples to get his point across. The later chapters are easier, addressing topics such as whether listening to Mozart's music makes people s marter (the " Mozart effect") and the relationship between music and language. However, for a book with "instinct" in the title, Ball is surprisingly cautious about citing an evolutionary or even biological basis for our musical likes and dislikes. It is only when explaining how music conveys and elicits emotion that he is prepared to propose an evolutionary explanation for our love of music. Ball argues that composers toy with our inclination to try and

Britain was poisoned at home, work andplay by James c. Whorton, Oxford University Press, £15.99 Reviewed by J o M a rchant

NOT for the faint­ hearted, The Arsenic Century tells of countless unfortunate people in Victorian Britain who met an agonising end courtesy of the deadly chemical arsenic. James C. Whorton investigates how arsenic trioxide - a tasteless white powder sold as rat poison­ became a popular murder weapon, as well as commonly finding its way into people's dinners after being mistaken for flour or sugar. Meanwhile, large sections of the population were slowly poisoned by arsenic used in the manufacture of clothes and toys. From desperate mothers killing their children for the insurance

money to aristocrats sickened by their luxury wallpaper, no one was beyond the poison's reach. Gruesome tales are interspersed with details of the chemistry of arsenic, development offorensic tests, and the introduction of laws to protect the public. If you can stomach Whorton's cheerful descriptions of explosive vomit, scrotal skin eruptions and tortured newborns, this book offers a unique insight into the darker side of Victorian life that foreshadows many oftoday's environmental pollution issues.

The g rand view In Praise of Science: Curiosity, understanding and progress by Sander Bais, MIT Press, $24.95 Reviewed by A m a nda Gefter

THIS attractive little book is many things at once: a coffee table book, a love letter to science and a stand against ...-. .... '-----I scientific illiteracy. Theoretical physicist Sander Bais is interested in the ways in which scientific understanding affects world views. For instance, he explains how the discovery that the Earth's surface is a closed sphere rather than an infinite plane suddenly transformed the world into a knowable place, and one with limited resources. Bais's passion for science and his respect for its methods are contagious, even ifhis musings at times seem random and muddled as he meanders from HIV denial to string theory, from postmodernism to petamachines. Ultimately, this is a treatise on the unity of knowledge, on the one science "that is slowly taking shape through the work of thousands of scientists spread out over the earth and in time. It is like putting a gigantic jigsaw puzzle together. . . until every piece falls into place and we get a grand view of the whole:' _ _ _

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East Coast Office

West Coast Office

225 Wyman Street Waltham, MA 02451

201 Mission Street, 26th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105

Email [email protected] Phone 781 7348770

Email [email protected] Phone 415908 3353

Fax 7203569217

Fax 415 543 6789

For more information visit

1400695404

Calls may be monitored or recorded for staff training purposes

BIOLOGY

pharmacological analysis of small

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AND ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR POSITIONS

metabolism are preferred

Harvard Medical School (H MS)

molecules and how they impact

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

1400695923

Postdoctoral Fellow Cincinnati, OH - Academic

For more information visit NewScientistjobs.com job 10: 1400695927

and Massachusetts General

Cellular Toxicology Sr Scientist / Scientist

University of Cincinnati, Department of Cancer and Cel l

Pfizer US

Biology

CT - Connecticut

OH - Ohio

Primary duties or developed

We are seeking candidates with

and Associate Professor, are

Postdoctoral Positions - Lipidomics and New Generation Biofuels

available at the Cutaneous Biology

U niversity of Nebraska-Lincoln

knowledge on safety related

Research Center of MGH/Harvard

NE - Nebraska

Medical School/Department of

Lipidomics and New Generation

activities offocused research teams

in (1) Malignant peripheral nerve

Dermatology. Applicants must

Biofuels, This position addresses

centered on assay development

sheath tumors (MPNSTs) linked to

thought interaction with other team

Neurofibromatosis Type 1, or (2)

cellular and molecular techniques in

induced obesity and insulin

Hospital (MGH) MA - Massachusetts Positions for Assistant Professor

competencies will include: 1. gain mechanisms 2. contribute to all

have a Ph.D. and/or MD. degree,

the accumulation of triglycerides in

and a strong interest relevantto

different species of algae and will

cutaneous biology, including but

involve high throughput screening

not limited to immunology, chemical

of different algal species and

biology, epigenetics and clinically

genetic engineering of selected

work using rats and mice

oriented skin research.

speciesfor maximal oil production.

For more information v isit

For more information visit

For more information visit

NewScientistjobs.com job 1 0:

200687988

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

members 3. conduct biochemical,

cell based assays 4. possible in vivo NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

a strong background in cancer and/or metabolic diseases to elucidate the signaling pathways

Branched-chain amino-acid

resistance. For more i nformation visit

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

200687427

1400695078

1400695931

Research Technician - New York, NY - Hospital

Postdoctoral Positions ­ Fatty Acid Trafficking.

Computational Scientist University of Chicago

Muscle Regenerative Medicine Research Investigator (Ph.D)

University of Nebraska- Lincoln

IL - Illinois

N ovartis I n stitutes for

NY - New York The available mouse technician

New York Un ive rsity NYU, Langone Medical Cente r

NE - Nebraska

Computational Scientist opening at

BioMedical Research (US)

Fatty Acid Trafficking. This

University of Chicago The University

MA - Massachusetts

position requires excellent

position uses high-resolution mass spectrometry to follow the

of Chicago's Computation Institute

The focus ofthe group will be

communication and organizational

and the Departments of Computer

on stem cell biology and muscle

skills and the ability to work

trafficking and metabolism of

Science, Human Genetics, Medicine

regeneration although there

independently as well as within a

different classes of exogenous

and Sociology, are launching a

is potential to work in other

group setting. Extensive mouse

fatty acids in mammalian cell

program to harvest and analyze

therapeutic applications. The

handling and mouse embryo work

lines. Expertise in mammalian cell

biomedical hypotheses on a large

candidate will be responsible for

is required.

culture and associated expression

scale.

establishing and analyzing models

For more i nformation visit

and knockdown technologies, lipid

For more information visit

of muscle regeneration and/or adult

metabolism, and ability to apply state-of-the-art mass spectrometry

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

1400695752

For more information visit 1400695913

NewScientistjobs.com job 10: 1400696829

For more information visit NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

methods are preferred NewScientistjobs.com job 1 0:

stem cell function.

1400695333

Research Investigator I

Postdoctoral Fellow Position Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Research Director, Agronomic Traits

We are seeking a highly motivated research investigator with a strong

Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (US) MA - Massachusetts

Postdoctoral Positions - Lipid Metabolism/Small Molecule Analysis

Louisiana State University

Pioneer Hi- Bred

Health Sciences Center (LSU)

lA - Iowa

background in oncology research as

LA - Louisiana

Plans and directs agronomic traits

exemplified by a strong publication

U niversity of Nebraska- Lincoln

Successful applicants will be

research programs through a

record. While strong candidates

NE - Nebraska

immersed in an interactive

department of research managers,

from all areas of expertise will be considered, expertise in

Lipid Metabolism/Small Molecule

environment with in vivo and

plant physiologists, molecular

Analysis. This position advances

in vitro molecular expertise.

biologists, and through external

cell cycle and in DNA damage

current studies that have identified

Interested candidates should have

collaborations to deliver traits to

repair responses are especially

small molecules that block fatty acid

a PhD. in a field such as molecular

improve crop yield in both optimal

encouraged to apply.

import. Expertise in mammalian

pharmacology, biochemistry, or

and abiotic stress environments.

cell culture, the use of mouse

cell biology. Previous experience in

For more information visit

models, lipid metabolism and

molecular biology is preferred.

50 I NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

NewScientistjobs.comjob 10:

For more information visit

NewScientistjobs.com job 10: 1400697777

www.NewScientistJobs.com

Research Assistant Professor/Research Associate position

available on-site.

Un iversity of Texas at EI Paso

200689508

For more i nformation visit NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

TX - Texas A Research Assistant Professor/ is available immediately for

Senior Scientist #115481 New Vork, NV

a highly motivated individual

ImCione Systems

Research Associate position

Trudeau Institute, Inc. has immediate openings for postdoctoral fellows to carry out research in murine models of infectious disease, virology, cellular and molecular studies of host pathogen interactions, mouse molecular genetics, si gnal transduction, chemokines, immune memory and lymphocyte adhesion, traffickin g and homing.

interested in HIV and Cancer

NY - New York

Vaccine Development atthe

A leader in therapeutic antibodies,

Research opportunities for creative Ph.D., M.D. or D.V. M . scientists with

ImCione Systems is committed

a stron g interest in pursuing the mechanisms that regulate responses to

to advancing oncology care by

pathogens, tumors and autoanti gens are available.

University ofTexas at EI Paso. The

translational program is focused the development of novel T cell based

developing a portfolio of novel

FACULTY RESEARCH INTERESTS

immunogens to elicit qualitatively

targeted biologic treatments

Andrea Cooper, Ph.D. - Immunopathogenesis of mycobacterial disease

For more information visit

needs of patients with a variety of

su perior human T cell responses.

NewScientistjobs.com job 1 0:

200665195

designed to address the medical cancers. For more i nformation visit NewScientistj obs.com job 10: 200689509

Post Doctoral Fellow Med ica l College of Georgia GA - Georgia

Protein Biochemist (OOOM2)

This position is being posted

Monsanto

as a Postdoctoral position;

MO - M issouri

Markus Mohrs, Ph.D.

Edward Pearce, Ph.D. - Immune regulation in chronic helminth infections, dendritic cell biology, schistosome biolo gy. Erika Pearce, Ph.D. - Molecular mechanisms re gulatin g CD8 T cell fates

Trudeau Institute, Inc. located in the heart of northern New York State's Adirondack Mountains offers competitive salaries, affordable housing, a full complement of benefits and on-site child care. The Institute fosters a highly collaborative research environment focused on basic immunology and

infectious disease. Further details may be found at www.trudeauinstitute.org

I nterested candidates should send a CV, cover letter, a brief statement of research interests and three references (preferably with an e-mail address

)

howeve� dependent uponthe

Monsanto is seeking highly a

selected candidate's education,

training , experience and prio r job

motivated individual to j oin our Biotechnology organizat ion.

trudeauinstitute.org

pe rformance, they may qualify for a

This team is responsible for a

Postdoctoral or Senior Postdoctoral

broad set of activities including

cover letter.

level.

a focus on the discovery, design

For more information visit

and characterization of the proteins

NewScientistjobs.com job 1 0:

200689513

Post- doctoral Research Fellow - Harvard Medical School, Boston - Academia

Brigham and Women's Hos p ita l &

Harvard Medical School

- Cellular and molecular mechanisms governin g

cytokine responses to infection

included to Amy Richardson, Human Resource Manager, Trudeau Institute, Inc., 154 Algonquin Avenue, Saranac Lake, NY 12983 or arichardson@

If interested in interviewing with a particular lab or labs, please specify in the

in the Penn-PORT IRACDA Training Program

in the company's products.

systems. The research utilizes

For more i nformati on visit

a multidisciplinary approach

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

that integrates behavioral,

U niversity of Pennsylvania

1400698464

pharmacological, biochemical and

School of Medicine

POSTDOCTORAL POSITION U niversity of Maryland ,

molecular levels of analysis.

PA - Pennsylvania

For more information visit

Postdocs will also be able to take

NewScientistjobs.com job 1 0:

1400699888

MD - Maryland

The applicant must have a PhD in

POSTDOCTORAL POS ITI ON

cell biology, biochemistry or similar

available immediately Independent

scientific field or MD degree with

and career success skills training programs provided by Biomedical

Ba ltimore

MA - Massachusetts

advantage of the many research

Postdoctoral Programs (BPP).

Postdoctoral Research/ Regulatory Opportunities

NewScientistj obs.co m j o b 1 0 :

motivated individuals with

FDA, Department of Health

1400699131

experience in either biochemistry

and Human Services, Food and

or cell biology are soughtfor a postdoctoral position in an

Dru g Ad m i nistration/Center for

strong publication record is essential For more information visit

established neurobiology laboratory

Biologics Eval uat ion & Research MD - Maryland

in Baltimore.

The Center for Biologics Evaluation

previous wet-lab experience. Ability

to work with mice is required. A

NewScientistjobs.com job 1 0:

200689077

For more information visit

Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs (BPP) invites applications for postdoctoral appointments.

For more i nformation visit

and Research's mission i s to protect

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

and enhance the public health

U niversity of Pennsylvania

1400699904

through the regulation of biological

School of Medicine

allergenics, tissues, and cellular and

products incl u di n g blood, vaccines,

THE UNIVERSITY OF

Faculty Position in Stem and Progenitor Cell Biology

PA - Pennsylvania

I nstit u te

Postdoctoral position

gene therapies.

PENNSYLVANIA Biomedical

SUNY Downstate Medical Center

For more information visit

Postdoctoral Programs (BPP)

ME - Maine

NY - New York

Expertcore facilities in flow

A Postdoctoral position is available

1400699329

appointments. The Universi ty of

Maine Medical Center Research

cytometry/FACS, ES cell biology,

bioinformatics, mouse genetics,

to study sexu al dimorphic tolerance

proteomics, confocal microscopy

as sex-dependent expression

and in vivo imaging technologies are

and utilization of spinal opioid

NewScientistjobs.comjob 10:

invites applications for postdoctoral

Pennsylvan ia has long been revered and respected for its belief in the

/ dependent mechanisms as well

Postdoctoral Positions at the University of Pennsylvania

importance of education and its pursuit of excellence.

27 February 2010 I NewScientist 1 51

www.NewScientistJobs.com

For more information visit NewScientistjobs.comjob 10: 1400699121

Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology Philadelphia Col l e g e of Osteopathic Medicine PA - Pennsylvania

Genentech Postdoctoral Program

The position requires an M.D. or

Genentech

of motivation, with a strong backgro u nd in molecular o r cellular b iol o gy to conduct basic research on

CA - Califo r nia

Our fellowships typically last four years and offerthe chance to do cutting-edge research in an insp ired, pu rposeful and resourcerich environment Th roug houtthe program, you will be encouraged to p u b lish and p res ent t h e progress and results of your work both intern a lly and at exte rn al sc i entif ic co nfere nces,

PhD degree, with a h ig h deg ree

the molecular mechanism of cardiac muscle contraction, For more information visit

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

1400699176

For more information visit

Postdoctoral Position Available at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

U niversity of Miami, M iller School

1400699241

of M e d i c i n e FL - Florida

Postdoc or Research Associate on Cancer Biomarker Discovery Using Our Novel Antibody Microarray Platform McGill U n iversity QC - Quebec

We seekan outsta n d ing postdoctora l fellow or research associate to lead our effort on biomarker discovery and validation for breast cancer, The work is on using and i mp rovi ng our novel high performance microfluidic a nti bo dy platform for multiplex profiling of bioma rker prote i ns in tissue and blood for ca nce r a nd other d iseases,

Postdoctoral Position Available at the Miami Project to Cure Paralys i s, University of Miami Mill er Schoo l of

M ed ic ine Funded laboratory seeks a hig h ly motivated researcher to stu dy combination strategies to repa ir the injured rat sp i nal cord, i nclud ing the use of cultured cell trans p lantation and bioengineered materia ls, For more information visit

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

POSTDOCTORAL POSITION in the

laboratory of Dr. Richard H ardy at the Fox Chase Ca ncer Center in Ph i lade l phia, to study the role of pre-B a nd B cell a ntig en receptor in B cell development growth

NY - New York

Trudeau Institute, Inc. has i m m ed i ate op en i ngs fo r postdoctoral fe ll ows to carry o ut researc h i n muri ne mod e l s of infectious disease, virology, cellular and molecularstudies of host path ogen i nteractio n s, mouse molecular g e n eti cs, si g n a l transd u cti on, ch em o ki n es, i mmun e memory and lymphocyte ad hesi on, trafficking and ho m i ng , For more information visit

NewScientistjobs.comjob 10: 1400699902

The Nutrition Research Institute

seeks to identify the mecha n isms u n de rlyi n g meta bo lic/nutriti o nal va ri a b il ity us i n g nutri geno m ic an d metabolomic methods a nd to apply this u n derstand ing so as to exp lain individual responses to nutrients

and diet For more i nformation visit NewScientistjobs.com job 10: 1400698922

POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS in PHARMACOLOGY & NEUROSCIENCE Temple Unive rsi ty School of Me d ic ine PA - Pennsy l va n ia

Postdoctoral Position Al bert Einstein Col l e g e of Medicine of Yeshiva University NY - New York

Fellows can work with faculty members i n severa l basic science departments i nclud ing Ph a rm aco l ogy, M i cro b i o logy & Immunology, An atomy & Cell Biology, Physiology, and Psychology, 1400699159

growth. For more information visit NewScientistjobs.comjob 10: 1400699896

For more information visit NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

1400699905

For more information visit

Lecturer - Biological Sciences (Molecular or Cell Biologist)

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

Hunter Colle g e of the City

52 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

The Trudeau Institute

Hill

NC - North Caro l i na

fruitfly Drosop h i la melanogaster, Our interests i nclude the regul ation of the cel l cycle and other a spects of cell phys io logy during terminal diffe rentiatio n of ne urons, a nd the pathways or cell death, cell e ng u lf ment and cell o rientati o n d uring cell com petition and organ

Wadsworth Center

regulation, and transformation

Postdoctoral Fellow Department of

at Chapel

FACULTY RESEARCH INTERESTS

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

(leukem ia),

1400698994

Open Rank Faculty Position The Un i ve rsity of North Carolina

differentiation in vivo using the

NY - New York

FOX CHASE CANCER CENTER

1400699066

NIH SUPPORTED POST DOCTORAL POSITION

We are investigating i nteraction s between expos ure to environmental contaminants a nd sexu a l ly dimorphic differences in brain development and neurodegeneration using in vitro tec h n iques i nc lud i n g pri mary neu ron al a n d orga n otyp ic bra in cu ltures,

PA - Pennsylvan i a

For more i nformation visit

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

The successful a pp lica nt will use molecular and genetic a pproac h es to stu dy g rowth an d/or neural

For more information visit

POSTDOCTORAL POSITION

biology, includin g a survey of biol og ical principles used in fore n si c biology and analysis of bi ol og ical evidence, For more information visit NewScientistjobs.comjob 10: 1400699901

funded Post-doctora l Trai ning Grant pos i ti on s at its Blood Research I nstitute ( BRI) ,

1400699222

NewScientistjobs.com job 10: 1400699232

biology, such as diseases, nutrition, e p i de mio lo gy and on forensic

Unive rs i ty of New York l CU N Y

NY - New York The successfu l candidate will be expected to develop a nd teach courses in to pi cs based on h u ma n

For more information visit

Biostatistician (OOORM) Monsanto NC - North Caro l ina Monsanto is see ki ng h ig h ly a motivated individual to d evelo p innovative p red icti ve models that use multiple data so urces to pred i ct gene performan ce, The statisti cia n will contribute to the planning and analysis of crop studies, i nc lud ing non-traditional fi eld stud ies,

Post-doctoral Research Fellows

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

BloodCenter

1400698256

For more i nformation visit

WI - Wisconsin

BloodCenter of W i scon sin, an internation a lly recog n ized leader in vascular biol ogy, t hrombosis

Plant Specialist (00191) Mo n s a nt o

M O - M i ssou r i and hemostas is, im mu n obiol ogy, transfusion medicine and stem cel li Monsanto is recruiti n g for a position titled Plant Specialist to manage the hemato po iesis research, is seeking g rowth of plants in h i g h -throug h put o utsta n d i n g candidates to fill NIH-

www.NewScientistJobs.com

greenhouses and growth chamber

Francisco (USCF)

environments at our St Louis

CA - California

For more information visit

Mouse Genetic Models of Retinal

Research faci lity,

NewScientistjobs.comjob 1 0:

1400698290

Statistical Geneticist (OOOXO)

biochemical and molecular levels of analysis. In addition to u si ng whole animals, experiments make use of ex vivo preparati ons

mouse genetic model of retinal

and cells maintained in culture,

d egeneration at the UCSF School of Medicine in San Francisco,

For more i nformation visit NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

Monsanto is currently seeking a

Examples of research projects

include identification of sex-dependent s pi nal pathways activated by

morphi ne, sex-dependent effects of chronic opioid exposure on o pioi d signal transduction, The successful candidate could also be i nvolved i n i nvestigati ng subcellular localization of o pio i d receptor Gs si gnali ng and determinants / con seq u ences of opioid receptor heterodimerization, A Ph, D. wi th experience in cell / molecular biology with a strong background in biochem ist ry is desired. The position offers the o ppo rtunity to work

to join our Corn Breeding team to

high motivated Statistical Geneticist

Scientist I

develop, promote, and implement

Medi m mu n e US

with dynamic well-funded investigators in a collegial and collaborative

CA - California Primary responsibility is the care,

of multiple native traits into elite

maintenance, and operation of

germplasm, and to evaluate the

a BO LSRII flow cytometer, This

performance of these native traits

responsibility encompasses the

in agricultural field trials, For more information visit

development of multicolor (up

1400698402

approach that integrates behavioral, pharmacological,

position is avai lable to study a novel

200691142

NewScientistjobs.co m j ob 10:

as sex-dependent expressi on and utilization of s pi nal opi oi d systems. The research utilizes a multidisciplinary

Degeneration A postdoctoral

MO - Misso u ri

validation and QTL deployment

A Postdoctoral position is available to study sexual dimorphic tolerance / dependent mechanisms as well

Postdoctoral Position to Study

Monsanto

strategies for eff icient QTL

____

to 9 color) cytometric assays, surface staining, intracellular

staining, and flow-based functional

environment. Interested applicants should submit their CV, statement of research i n te rests and contact i nform atio n for three references to: alan [email protected].

,

SUNY Downstate is an EEO! AA employer and strongly encourages applications from women and minorities.

epidemiology.

Statistical Associate

For more information visit

Alberta Cancer Board

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

AB - Alberta As part of this dynami c team, the

200691141

assays (proliferation, lytic activity,

Statistical Associate will have

degranulation, signalling),

specific individual responsibilities

Toxicologist (OOlBB)

For more i nformation visit

Monsanto

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

MO - Misso u ri

200691135

Monsanto Company, a global leader in agricu ltural biotechnology

Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in Geneticl Molecular Epidemiology and Gene-Environment Interactions

of Population Health Research

actively supporting the Research Scienti sts in the Department

(Division of Preventive O ncology,

Facu lty of Medicine, University of

and crop protection chemicals,

Scientist II/Senior Scientist

Albe rta Cancer Boa rd

Calgary) by providing statistical

is seeking a PhD toxicologist to

Med im mu n e US

AB - Al berta

support for research projects,

join the Toxicology Team in its

CA - California

Recent studies have included the

For more information visit

Regulatory Product Safety Center,

The candidate will conceptualize,

collection of biologic

NewScientistj obs,com job 1 0 :

For more information visit

plan, and provide laboratory

samples and the analysis of

200691129

leadership for biologic vaccine

molecular mechanisms involved

NewScientistjobs.co m j ob 1 0:

1400698279

Postdoctoral Position to Study Mouse Genetic Models of Cerebrovascular Disease Un iversi ty of California, Sa n F ra n ci s co ( U S C F)

CA - California

formulatio n and drug product

in cancer etiology and survival.

development. Major respon sibilities

include pre-form u lation, formulation

Numerous opportunities

Epidemiologist

existforthe successful

Al berta Cancer Board

candidate to contribute to

AB - Alberta

dru g p rod uct development, and

on-going and planned research

As part of a dynamic team, the

manufacturing support,

studies,

Epidemiologist will have specific

For more i nformation visit

For more information visit

characterization, stability studies,

NewScientistjobs.com job 10: 200691134

NewScientistjobs.co m j o b 1 0:

200691123

Mouse Genetic Models of

Division of Preventive Oncology) U niversity of Montana

Assistant Professor of OncologyNirology

activities related to obtaining

MT - Montana

U n iversity of Wisconsin Madison

f u nding for, and the conduct of,

At least two postdoctoral positions

WI - Wisconsin

epidemiologic research for research

funded by the University of

The McArdle Laboratory for

projects,

of Oncology and the Institute of

NewScientistjobs,com job 1 0 :

(COBRE) in Environmental Health

Molecular Virology are seeking

200691131

Sciences and individual NIH grants

outstandi ng candidates for a joint

are available as part of ourtraining program at CEHS in

tenure-track, assistant professor

various fields of investigation

virology,

Research Physiologist (205048)

including immunotoxicology,

For more information visit

Henry M jackson Foundation

200690647

Must have knowledge of h u man

Cerebrovascula r Disease A

Postdoctoral Opportunity

postdoctoral position is available to study a novel mouse genetic model of cerebrovascular disease at the

For more information visit

NewScientistjobs.comjob 1 0:

200691143

Postdoctoral Position to Study Mouse Genetic Models of Retinal Degeneration Un ivers ity of California, San

in the Department (affiliated to the University of Calgary through the

Postdoctoral Position to Study

UCSF School of Medicine in San Francisco,

individual responsibilities actively supporting the research scientists

Montana's NIH-funded Centerfor Biomedical Research Excellence

respiratory diseases, neurotoxicology and environmental

Cancer Research / Department

position in the area of cancer

NewScientistjobs.comjob 1 0:

by p rovidin g support to research

For more information visit

FL - F lorida

27 February 2010 I NewScientist 1 53

www.NewScientistJobs.com

performance, hypoxi a, and

Research Technician

pharmacokinetics of the del i very

environmental c hal l e n ges;

Thomas jefferson Un i versity

vehic l e .

Research Associate (OOOR7) Monsanto

Knowledge of preparation and

PA - Pe n nsy l va ni a

For more information visit

MO - M i sso u r i

presentation of sci e ntifi c a rti c les

The techn i cian will be trained

NewScientistjobs.comjob 10:

A resea rch associate is needed to

inc l u ding formatting, writing, and

to perform m o lecular biol ogica l

1400704985

graphic presentations.

experimentatio n inclu ding

For more information visit

po lyme rase chain reaction,

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

clon in g, g e n eti c m an ipu lation,

200693470

prote in ex pressio n and analysis.

Post Doctoral Research Associate U ni vers i ty of V i rg inia

VA - V irg i n i a

Candidates should have an

be active ly involved in the planning for a program to p roduce, test, and

CLINICAL

distribute reference materials to sup port the gl oba l reg i stration of

our Biotec h produ cts.

Experience in ge netic a nalysi s of

For more i nformation visit

Saccharomyces cerevisiae and

Research Associate ­ Agronomy

meiotic d evel opment are he lpful but

Pioneer Hi- Bred

1400698475

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

not required.

H I - Hawa i i

For more information visit

The agronomy research associate

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

will be responsible for supporting

1400701866

the agronomy efforts of the

Genentech

Waimea Research Center with the

CA - Ca l i forn ia

outstanding record in grad u ate

Medical Director (MD)

primary focus on irrigation and plant

The Medical Director/Sr Medical

nutrition. It is expected thatthis

will act as a clinical representative

work independently are required.

Post Doc - Computational Mechanics of Materials R&D

position can be the backup person

to a numberof cross-functional

Ind ivid u a ls with a very recent

Sandia National Laboratories

for pest cont ro l and gene ra l l PM

teams responsible fo r the selection

Ph.D. degree in Computer Science,

NM - New Mex i co

Molecular Biology, or related

We are sea rc hing for Post Docs

practi ces. For more information visit

of the cl in i cal d evelo pm ent plans and the design, implementation,

school. Excellent skills in oral and written Eng l ish and the ability to

field and expertise in ca ncer

in Computational Mechanics of

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

b ioinform atics a nd/or syste ms

M ateria ls R&Dforthe M u lti scale

1400695416

b io l ogy are strongly p refe rred .

Dynami c Materials Modeling

of clinical candidates, formulation

monitoring, ana lys i s, a nd reporting of stu dies conducted within one or

more prog ram s.

For more information visit

Department atthe Albuquerque

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

facil ity.

Research Scientist

200695236

For more information visit

Pioneer Hi- Bred

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

NewScientistjobs.com job 10:

H I - Hawa i i

1400705989

1400704839

Provide technical a n d managerial

Research Associate, Signal Transduction and Cell Biology of Tumor Metastasis

For more i nformation visit

l eade rship for Waimea Genetics

Scientific Facilities Coordinator

gene/event selection, early trait

Epigenetics Research Associate/Scientist (BS/MS)

and population development,

Novarti s Institutes for

VA - Virg inia

Albert Einstein Co l le g e of

technology deve lop me nt for maize

BioMe d i c a l Research (US)

Postdoctoral position as a research

M ed icine

through use of field nurseries and

MA - Massachusetts

associate is available imm ediately

NY - New York

screenhouses. Collaborate with

The individual will conduct research

Un i vers i ty of V i rg inia

Nursery efforts to support early

to study the role of GTPases a nd

The Department of Cell Biology

other scientists to rap id ly and

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54 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

www.NewScientistJobs.com

Postdoctoral Fellow Positions Immediate opening for Postdoctoral Fellows. Should have experience in molecular biology, cell biology and possess knowledge of cancer biology. High motivation is absolutely required

.

The positions will be supported by a prestigious Era of Hope Scholar Award from DOD Breast Cancer Research Program. Project focuses on characterizing and targeting replication stress response defects in breast cancer. We will use cutting-edge technologies to identify gene signature and biomarkers associated with defective replication stress response for diagnostic imaging, prevention, and treatment ofbreast cancer. Applicants should have a strong background in molecular biology, cell biology, genetiCS, and cancer biology.

Please send curriculum vitae, statement of career interests, and contact information for three references to: Shiaw-Yih Lin, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Tenured The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Department ofSystems Biology, Unit 950 South Campus Research Building II P. O. Box 301429

�I GLADSTONE INSTITUTE OF r..

NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE

Assistant ProfessorIAssistant Investigator Neurobiology of Disease Gladstone/UCSF Faculty Position The Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) invite applications for a faculty position at the level of Assistant Professor/ Assistant Investigator. Primary criteria for appointment will be genuine commitment to disease-related

Houston, TX 77230-1429

neuroscience and outstanding records ofinnovative

E-mail: [email protected]

research and academic performance. Of particular interest are candidates who are seeking their first independent faculty position, focus on Alzheimer's disease, and have expertise in the pathobiology

Making

of mitochondria, stem cells or systems biology. A

M. D. A nderson Cancer Center is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, disability, or veteran status except where such distinction is required by law. All positio ns at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center are security sensitive and subject to examination ofcrimin al history record information. Smoke-free and drugjree environment.

't�'::;/!.�--I�J.-

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strong publication record and clear potential to establish a vigorous independent research program are essential. The successful candidate will join an interactive group of investigators in Gladstone's state-of­ the-art research facility at UCSF's Mission Bay campus. S/he will have joint appointments in the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and in the Department of Neurology, the Neuroscience Graduate Training Program and the Biomedical

Baltimore. Ourworkis focused on the secretoryprotein maturation enzymes known as proprotein convertases ( p es), responsible for

Sciences Graduate Training Program at UCSF.

neuropeptides. Recent data indicate that these enzymes are also

underrepresented m inorities are encouraged to

the synthesis of most secreted signaling proteins- for example,

involved in the pathogenesis of microbial and viral disease as well as in cancer. Current projects include, but are not limited to :

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2) development ofstable small molecule convertase inhibitors through HTS screening and validation in cell sJstems, including cancer models; and

3) characterization ofPC interaction with their bindingproteins.

Excellent salary support is provided. Women and apply. Please send curriculum vitae, description of achievements and research interests, and the names of three references to : [email protected] GIND /UCSF Search Committee 1650 Owens Street, San Francisco, CA 94158

Please visit the lab website http://thelindberglab.com for more information.

The J David Gladstone Institutes and UCSF are Affirmative Action/Equal

A previous publication in a refereed, English-language journal

emplqyment opportunity for underutilized minorities and women, for persons

addresses and phone numbers of three references, to Dr. Iris

Gladstone and UCSF seek candidates whose experience, teaching, research or

Lindberg at [email protected].

community service has prepared them to contn'bute to our commitment to diversity

is necessary.

Please email your resume, including the email

The University ofMdryldnd is dnEO/AA employer.

Opportunity Emplqyers. Thry undertake affirmative action to assure equal with disabilities, and for Vietnam-era veterans and special disabled veterans.

and excellence.

27 February 2010 I NewScientist 1 55

For more feedback, visit www.NewScientist.com/feedback

FEEDBACK

&�� � ���

particle - sometimes called the "God particle" - is, if it exists, the manifestation of a scalar field (New Scientist, 19 April 2008, p IS). Feedback rather prefers the implication of another site, Quantum-Healing-Lasers.com, selling an identical-looking device which it declares is "profound like a Star Trek Tricorder". Not real, then, but imaginary.

FOLLOWING our report on inappropriate online advertising (19 December 2009) Maura Hazelden tells us she joined the "Climate change denial is evi l" group on Facebook. On arriving at the group page, she found the advertisement on the rig ht-hand side was: "Cha rter a jet for family and friends".

Feedback's attempts to YET more fruitloopery arrives "You have to laugh," she says. elucidate what "scalar wave" in our inbox as Pranav Lal alerts might mean led us to the writings us to Scalar Wave Lasers - though of one Tom Bearden, who believes TWO weeks ago we asked why the it may be unfair to judge the product entirely by the first word "aspects" should so often be that Maxwell's equations of replaced by "phpects" on the web electromagnetism have been testimonial on scalarwavelasers. censored to hide the possibility of (13 February). Yonatan Silver (by com: "My vision of healing with email) and Jim Miller (online infinite free energy. What would the sacred union of light, color comment) were just the first of this mean in terms of boring old and vibration is now manifest." many to suggest, in Yonatan's conventional physics? What do the promoters Consider a weather map. At any words, that "a number of website themselves have to say about builders did a global search-and­ one point on it, the temperature scalar waves? Apparently, they are "revolutionary neutral waves just has a magnitude: it is a scalar replace of references to ASP (a website-building language), quantity. The wind, however, has of energy. They do not have a magnitude and also a direction: replacing it with PHP (another polarity and therefore do not website-building language)". travel in a linear fashion from it is a vector. Electromagnetism is all vectors, past to present." Er, maybe. Tim Edwards agrees with this explanation and points out that You can try to heal yourselfwith too, sane physicists tell us. But "phpire" and even "phparagus" them at a cost of a mere $3300 for according to Bearden and his are out there, too. a device containing 16 red laser followers, electromagnetism also incorporates a scalar field, Kris Nelmes, however, diodes. Would those be similar to the diodes offered on a well­ which makes all sorts ofwondrous was miffed about the online discussion on the subject: things possible. known auction website for just This confluence of vibrational ''I'm going to have a cry because £1.68 apiece? Then again, we could healing and free energy raises the I thought I was going to be the hardly begrudge paying rather first to work that out." alarming possibility of a Grand more for the proprietary device's Unified Fruitloop Theory (GUFT). "patent pending scalar wave technology" and its "advanced Just wait until more of the READER Roger Powell wants to get fruitloops realise that the Higgs quantum features". hold of a box from Amazon, as these

IyIcleverbox), but its boxed weight is listed as only 599 grams. Th is, Roger suggests, must be how Amazon keeps its shipping costs down.

PROUDLY wearing an analogue watch from Timex, Glenn Ostling was impressed by its glow-in-the-dark face. He was even more impressed, when it came to the end of his first month with the device, by the honesty ofthe instruction sheet: "NOTE: Date may need to be manually updated at the end of each month... otherwise it will continue to 39 and then roll over to 00." Why, we want to know, did the engineers pick a 40-day default month, counting from zero? After idly searching for objects with an orbital period of 40 days, Feedback concludes that the target market may be computer programmers (who notoriously have to remember, when shopping,

not to count eggs " zero, one, two... ") living on one of the central pair of stars in the Regulus system in the constellation Leo.

FINALLY, Alistair Anderson tells us he received a leaflet through his door entitled "Crime and anti-social behaviour". It explained: "This leaflet tells you what you can expect from the police and others when it comes to crime and a nti-social behaviour."

handy containers appear to have the

A n oti ce M i ke Page saw attached to ra i li ngs i n the city of Portsmouth, U K, reads: "Al l obj ects attached to these ra i l i ngs w i l l be removed ," N ot often you see a notice th reaten itself 56 1 NewScientist 1 27 February 2010

abi lity to reduce the weight of any objects placed inside them. For example, the veh icle reversing aid Roger was interested in normally weighs 2 kilograms, according to the product details on Amazon's site (bit.

You can send stories to Feedback by email at [email protected]. Please include your home address. Th is week's a nd past Feed backs can be seen on ourwebsite.

Last wo rd s past a nd present plus q uestio ns, at

TH E LAST WORD

www.last-wo rd .com

Bird on a wire

This week's questions

I saw this kittiwake fl yin g upside down (see photo) in Norway's

LIVING IN T H E PAST

Svalbard archipelago - about 79°

If a camera was placed 1 light year away from Earth with a high enough definition, could it be used to spy on events that took place on Earth one year ago? And, if so, could this technique be used to record our past by sending an array of such cameras to the appropriate distance in order to capture momentous events in Earth's history? Jon King Swindon, Wiltshire, UK

north - while we were stuck in the sea ice. This and other kittiwakes were feed ing on polar cod (about

13 centimetres long) that had become uncovered as our ship broke through the ice. What is it doi ng and why? How many other birds can do this?

• The kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)

is not actually flying upside down at all. You can tell because the bird's upper wings are visible in the photo, showing the silvery grey feathers with the classic dipped-in-black-ink wing tips. If it were upside down we would see the under wings, which are white with black tips. The twist of the bird's head is interesting, though. Clearly the bird has turned its head a long way to the right, so that it seems initially to be flying upside down. Many birds can rotate their heads to this degree or more­ owls and other birds of prey are the best knownexamples. In these species, head-turning helps them to detect their prey. Specifically, it allows owls to orientate their ears to obtain the best possible reception when listening for the faint rustling of a rodent moving through vegetation in the dark. In the kittiwake, however, this doesn't happen. A possible explanation is that the bird is trying to cough up a particularly sharp piece offish bone or

eating. The under-Wing pattern something else it has swallowed. Many birds, including gulls, which of the kittiwake looks nothing like the upper wing at all, and are relatives of the kittiwake, a cursory inspection ofthe regurgitate indigestible pellets. Another explanation is that structure of the flight feathers of this bird reveals a normally the bird is shaking off excess salt water from its beak. Most seabirds aligned gull. take in varying amounts of salt water when feeding, which they "Birds do not generally fly upside down, but they have to get rid ofbefore it reaches harmful levels in the body. Finally, may momentarily invert the bird may simply be twisting as to lose height rapidly" it calls out to other individuals in Birds do not generally fly the same area, or just keeping a upside down, but they may lookout for potential predators, momentarily invert, such as when such as skuas. wildfowl "whiffle" to lose height Kevin Elsby rapidly, spilling air from under Norwich, Norfolk, UK their wings (see bit.lY/3wfoqV). Additionally, some birds may ifyou get a chance to look at the roll during mating displays, such photos in the websites below ­ as the aptly named roller birds, especially thefirst - do so - Ed part of the order Coraciiformes, while others might in play (see • The bird is flying normally and twisting its head around, perhaps bit.ly/goq8PT). to preen itself or to loosen a Simon Woolley morsel offish that it may be Winchester, Hampshire, UK

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Do Polar Bears Ciet Lonely? O u r latest collection serious e n q u i ry. b r i l l iant insight and the hilariously u n expected Available from booksellers and at www.newscientist.com/ polarbears

STREAM OF CONSCIOUS NESS

On the news recently I heard of yet another search for the black box flight-data recorders from a missing aircraft. Why is this data not transmitted periodically to a satellite or ground station so that in the event ofthe unexplained loss of an aircraft, it would be readily available? Peter Cole Sark, Channel Islands CLUST E R BUSTER

It's a popular cliche to say that you wait ages for a bus, and then three turn up at once. But is there any truth to this? Or is it a false impression formed because we notice coincidences more than other events? 1f true, are there laws governing this behaviour, and are there any natural phenomena that obey the same principles? Clare Redstone London, UK

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Conversations for a Smarter Planet: No.2 in a Series

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new intell igence for a smarter planet.

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information. And created a torrent of decision-making information.

algorithms to track new sti m u l i , analyse data-in-motio n , correlate it

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with other relevant information. And p l ug directly into operational

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was happening and mig ht happen across the enterprise. Can you

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Questions l ike these can now be answered far more accu rately than

This really could change how the world works. Already, insurance

ever. But today the ante is being upped by the volume and variety of

companies see patterns i n billions of claims, and detect the

information, and the velocity of decision-making on a smarter planet

fraudulent few Pol ic e correlate street-level i nformation from myriad

How much? By 2010, the amount of d i g ital i nformati on in the world is predicted to double every 11 hours.

observations and devices to identify crime patterns - and prevent,

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IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com and the globe design are trademarks of I nternational Busi ness Machines Corporation, registered i n many iurisdictions worldwide. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at 'Copyright and trademark information' at www.ibrncom/legal/copytrade.shtml